


the weight of the ground

by pleasanthell



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-05-25 15:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 43,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14979776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasanthell/pseuds/pleasanthell
Summary: Alex looked back at the house, knowing it was saturated with awful memories for Maggie. It worried her. “If you’re not, we have a motorcycle. We can drive as far as it takes,” she assured Maggie. She wanted to put her arm around her ex, but the lines were blurry, and it was late at night.Maggie nodded. “Thank you.” She started to reach for Alex’s knee, but stopped herself halfway. She folded her hands together in her lap. “For everything. You didn’t have to come all the way out here for me.” She tilted her head in a way that was familiar and warm, her hair falling around her neck and away from her face.Alex took a bold move and placed her hands on top of Maggie’s. “I’ve always got your back.”





	1. Chapter 1

“Are you going to be okay with this?” J’onn asked Alex.

Alex shifted around, arms crossed. She didn’t want it to happen. She didn’t want to have to call Maggie to negotiate them out of the situation they were in, but Supergirl was tied up with something the local police definitely couldn’t handle, and the hostage taker would only talk to a cop. And the only cop they all trusted was Maggie.

“Yeah,” Alex nodded, eyes on the glowing strategy table in front of them. She could see agents moving around behind them, dealing with the hundreds of situations that seemed to be happening simultaneously. She drug her gaze up to J’onn. “I have to be.”

J’onn took his phone out of the pocket of his tactical pants, pressed a few buttons, and put it on speaker. It rang as he placed the phone in the middle of the table. There was a quick answer after the second ring, “What’s up, Hank?”

“I’m afraid we have a hostage situation that requires Detective Sawyer,” J’onn leaned on the table, looking at his phone.

“Oh, uh, she’s not here,” the man answered. “She’s on bereavement leave. Left yesterday.”

“Bereavement leave?” Alex asked, her heart dropping to her feet.

There was a pause like the man was surprised at the second voice or he wasn’t sure how much to say. “Uh, yeah. Her mom passed.”

Alex straightened up and covered her mouth. She moved to the nearest empty desk and sat down, processing that Maggie’s mom had died. She blinked very slowly and looked up at J’onn who seemed to understand why she took the news so poorly.

“I guess I need your best Hostage Response Team then,” J’onn replied. “No guns. Just the talkers.”

“Of course,” the man stated. “Just tell me where.”

After the team was dispatched, Alex and J’onn met them outside the hotel where the incident was taking place. After an hour of lackluster negotiating, Supergirl had freed herself up and swooped in to help. She handed over the bad guys to the DEO and found Alex pacing near the last line of police tape, phone in hand.

“Alex?” Supergirl asked. When her sister snapped out of her trance and looked up at her, distraught, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

Alex opened her mouth, jaw trying to make words, but she finally showed Supergirl her phone. It was a text window opened with an empty conversation between Alex and ‘Maggie Sawyer’. Alex had typed out a message that she hadn’t sent.  _ Hey Maggie, I heard about your mom. I’m so sorry. If there’s anything I can do, please _

It ended without conclusion and Supergirl handed the phone back. “What happened to her mom?”

“She died,” Alex answered quietly. She swallowed a confusing amount of emotion. “And I don’t know how Maggie is handling it.” And started pacing again, away from Supergirl, until she whirled around to talk to her sister. “Actually, I do. She’s not handling it well. Her parents were separated, Maggie was an only child. She’s alone, Kara.”

Supergirl put her hands on Alex’s arms. “What do you want to do?”

Alex shook her head and looked back at her phone. “I…I should just…” And she pressed ‘send’. She looked her sister dead in the eyes and moved her jaw around. “I shouldn’t care right this much? I mean, we broke up.”

“If you care, you care,” Supergirl shrugged, growing more aware of the people watching them from behind the police tape. She put her hands on her hips. “Meet you at my apartment?”

Alex nodded. Supergirl gave her one last sympathetic look before taking off.

Alex checked her phone every ten seconds before she got on her bike to drive to Kara’s apartment. She was on the curb, still on her motorcycle, when she checked her phone again. She had two text messages. Both were from Maggie.  _ No, I don’t know what to do. _ The next text was meant to negate the previous one.  _ But I’ll be fine. _

Alex didn’t know what it was that made her feel like she should be doing something to help Maggie. It was like she could feel Maggie’s pain across their distance but was helpless to do anything about it.

_ Where are you? _ Alex texted without hesitation. She stayed on her motorcycle, ready to drive to Maggie’s apartment as quickly as she could if Maggie needed her.

_ Airport _ Maggie answered.

“Nebraska,” Alex breathed out. She tapped around her phone and found the next flight that went to Maggie’s native area of Nebraska didn’t leave until the next morning. Then she started a different search and found it would take eight hours to drive. With a sigh Alex looked away from her phone. Eight hours was too long.

Then she looked up at the apartment she was supposed to be going to and dialed her sister. When Kara answered, she opened with, “Hey, I have a questionable favor to ask that will help me make a bad decision.”

“Oh, how the turntables.” Kara chuckled at he own joke and Alex couldn’t help but smile. There was a long pause as Kara let the joke fade away and she finally asked, serious and without jest, “Is it for Maggie? What’s the favor?”

“I need to get to Nebraska,” Alex explained how the next plane didn’t leave until the next morning and she couldn’t drive because she was so tired. She left out the part about probably being too distracted to drive.

“Do you have a flight suit?” Kara asked, then added, “I can get you there.”

“I left one in your closet,” Alex answered, hopping off of her bike.

“I can visit Clark’s parents while I’m in the area,” Kara sounded like she was eating. “Aunt Martha makes the best oatmeal cookies.”


	2. Chapter 2

Alex didn’t exactly look like a normal person standing outside of the airport in a flight suit, the top half tied around her waist, leaning on a motorcycle she’d borrowed. She had secured her backpack to the tail of it, leaving room for one more person should Maggie want to ride with her.

She had already texted Maggie, and her ex’s plane was set to land at any second. Alex honestly prayed that this wasn’t crazy. She hoped that Maggie did want to see her. She hoped that Maggie wouldn’t walk off of the plane with her new, totally supportive girlfriend. She hoped that Maggie didn’t find it weird that she rushed across several states to be with her.

Her phone buzzed in her hand. She almost didn’t want to look at the text she’d received.

She barely got a chance to look at her phone, much less open the text when she heard her name. “Alex.”

Maggie walked purposefully toward her, hands clutching the strap of her duffel bag. Maggie looked distracted in a way that Alex had never seen. She looked like she was barely hanging onto reality. But as she neared, Alex could see small details in Maggie’s face, creases and muscles twitches that told her Maggie was barely holding herself together.

Maggie stopped just short of Alex, leaving a solid two feet of sidewalk between them. “You came.”

“Of course.” Alex hated seeing Maggie like that. She put her hands on Maggie’s shoulder and guided her in. She looped an arm around Maggie’s shoulders and cradled the back of her head. “I’ll always be here for you.”

Maggie’s struggle became that much more intense as she did her best to breathe evenly and hold the tears in her eyes. When she knew a few more seconds of comfort would send her over the edge, Maggie stood up straight and rubbed her face, trying to force the tears back into the recesses of her body. “How did you get here so fast?”

Alex grinned. “I have fast friends.”

Maggie took a moment to let herself enjoy Alex’s smile and take in the fact that Alex had probably held onto her sister like a baby koala for the entire flight from National City. She had missed Alex so much.

She finally took in all of Alex and gestured to the flight suit around her waist. “I should have known.”

Alex looked over her shoulder and patted the leather motorcycle seat. “There are no rental cars because there’s some kind of convention in town, but I have a friend I went to med school with who loaned me his motorcycle for as long as we need it.” She immediately got nervous, realizing her statement was full of assumptions and a motorcycle was an intimate ride. “I mean I can see if I can find something else. He has like three cars so-”

“It’s fine,” Maggie pushed her duffel bag behind her and touched the backseat. “Do you mind driving? I don’t think…” She made a fist and gently tapped the soft leather with her knuckles. “There’s a lot going on.”

“Of course,” Alex stood up off the motorcycle and got ready to mount it again. “What’s the address?”

Maggie told Alex the address, and they both hopped on the motorcycle. Once they were out of the city, the drive was easy. The city gave way to factories that gave way to flat farmland. Once the land had all turned golden and uniform, it took away anything that would have distracted Maggie, and she was forced to reflect and plan.

Feelings overwhelming her as the first hour ticked by. It would have been nearly impossible to wipe tears away inside of a helmet, so she did not let them fall. Instead her muscles tensed with the stifled emotions and she held onto Alex tighter than necessary.

Alex took one hand off the handlebars and put it on top of Maggie’s forearms around her waist. She gently ran her thumb over Maggie’s skin and tried to convey what little comfort she could at seventy miles per house. She couldn’t tell Maggie that it would be okay and that she’d be there for her every step of the way so she hoped that touch would do in the interim.

It was another half hour of flat cornfields before they rolled up on a small town. Alex followed the GPS to the other side of town, through the sparse buildings that Alex would have missed if she blinked too long. Maggie pointed to a dirt driveway that Alex would have missed if she hadn’t.

Alex turned onto it and turned off the GPS as she slowed down. There were more cars than she expected outside of the house she’d only seen in pictures. There had to be at least ten vehicles parked up and down the long dirt driveway. They drove about a quarter mile from the main road to get to the front of the line, passing large trucks and beat up SUVs.

She slowed down significantly as they rolled up to the house. The house was situated next to a large tree with a rope swing tied to the largest limb. White wood paneling was starting to chip, but the green shutters on the first and second floor windows seemed freshly painted.

People were walking in and out of the house despite how late it was, the slap of the screen door against the wood if let to fall on its own could be heard over the motorcycle engine. The windows of the house glowed yellow against the night sky that spread out over them like a blanket. Alex had never seen so many stars.

She felt Maggie’s hold get tighter again. She wasn’t sure what she should say. She didn’t know what upset Maggie the most. Her mom died, and she had to come back to the place that had shunned her. A place she hadn’t seen in over ten years.

Alex stopped the motorcycle just on the edge of the dirt driveway in front of a truck that was closest to the house. A few people stopped in the doorway of the house to see who had just driven up. From behind her helmet visor, Alex saw the people starting to comment about them to each other. Her upper back involuntarily tensed up, and a fierce protectiveness rose in her chest. They were not going to talk about Maggie or be hateful to her in any way. She would make sure of it.

Maggie slid off the back of the bike as soon as it stopped and took her helmet off. She waited for Alex’s feet to hit the dirt, but not a second later. She took off toward the house, duffel bag bouncing off the back of her leg with every other step. Alex left her backpack on the motorcycle, more focused on staying with Maggie.

Maggie gritted her teeth. She was not going to cry. She wasn’t going to let the shame that engulfed the house seep back into her body. She slowed her walk a bit until she could feel Alex close behind her, then continued marching toward the house.

“Maggie,” an elderly woman who had been out on the small porch stopped Maggie before she could get to the door. “We’re so sorry.”

Maggie stutter stepped. She didn’t know what to say. It was the first time someone had acknowledged her loss so directly. She fought her face to keep her pain buried deep. She nodded, determined to keep a stone face, but her voice cracked when she said, “Thank you.” She put the back of her hand to her nose and sniffled. Then she asked, “Is Caroline inside?”

The woman nodded. She stepped up to Maggie and gave her a quick hug before releasing her. “She was in the kitchen last I saw.”

Maggie nodded and took a step back. “Thanks.” She looked to Alex to make sure she was following before turning on her heel and walking into the house. Alex gave a courteous nod to the woman and walked in behind Maggie.

Not everyone gave Maggie the warm reception that the woman on the porch had. However, Alex seemed to be the only one to notice. Maggie was making a b-line through the living room and through the open arch into the kitchen. The second a woman who had been standing near the sink saw Maggie, she burst into tears and rushed to Maggie.

“Oh sweetheart, I’m so sorry.” A woman Alex recognized from pictures as Caroline latched onto Maggie.

Alex stood near the entryway to the kitchen and kept an eye out. A man pointed out Maggie and whispered to a woman near him. Alex could see a few wayward glances her way. She felt like her back was on fire, but she leaned into it, stepping between Maggie and Caroline and the rest of the people in the living room, becoming a shield for the town’s judgement.

She watched Maggie relax a bit, but knew that Maggie wouldn’t cry in front of all the people in the house. Maggie would hold it in and push it down until it overcame her the second she was alone.

“How did you get here so fast?” Maggie asked Caroline.

Caroline wiped her eyes, unabashed with her emotions. “I wasn’t far.” She rubbed Maggie’s shoulders. “Are you okay? You got here quickly.”

Maggie swallowed and shrugged. “I have a friend at the airline.”

Alex watched from the edge of the kitchen. She was about to turn away when Maggie looked up at her with an uncharacteristically needy look. Maggie just wanted to make sure she was near.

Caroline’s eyes followed Maggie’s and they landed on Alex. “Oh. Alex.”

Alex was surprised that Caroline knew her by sight. She was sure that Caroline knew of her, but they had never met in her person.

Alex offered an awkward half-wave and a smile she hoped was cordial, but not too happy.

“Alex came with me,” Maggie explained, turning back to her aunt.

Caroline moved around the table that could only be described as vintage and put her arms around Alex. “Thank you for coming.”

“Of course,” Alex told her.

Maggie saw the two interacting and it felt like another dagger in her heart. She leaned on the closest kitchen table chair and asked her aunt, “Where are you staying?”

“Here,” Caroline gestured to the house around them.

Alex watched Caroline look past her and see all the people who had grown quiet. She could see the discomfort and a hint of annoyance. She’d seen the same look in Maggie’s face before, it was nearly identical. Alex bounced her eyes from Caroline to Maggie and back. She quietly asked if they’d like to be alone and used her eyes to indicate she was talking about the people in the living room and beyond.

Caroline put her hand on Alex’s arm. “Yes. Please.”

It took Alex less than fifteen minutes to clear the house. Once she’d said goodbye to the last grumpy person trying to stick around, she sat down on the cushioned wicker loveseat that took up most of the small added-on porch. It creaked heavily under her weight, but once she settled it was comfortable. She looked up at the deep, dark night and the starry sky.

She wanted to give Caroline and Maggie some time to themselves. Alex hadn’t known Maggie’s mom and probably never would have. Even if she did, she probably wouldn’t have liked her. She wasn’t there to grieve. She was there for support and Maggie would find her if she needed support.

She checked her phone and found some texts from Kara asking how things were going and asking if she wanted her to fly over some cookies. Alex answered that everything was going okay and that the cookie wouldn’t survive the trip with Kara’s mouth.

Alex was smiling at her phone when the front door opened. She very suddenly felt guilty for smiling under the circumstances. She stood up, also feeling guilty for sitting down for some reason.

Maggie exited the house and moved toward her, sitting down on the loveseat. Alex sat down with her.

“Was that Kara?” Maggie asked softly, not looking directly at Alex.

Alex nodded. “She was just checking on everything.”

Maggie nodded knowingly. Alex and Kara didn’t do anything without telling the other. She was quiet for a long while, not knowing what to say or how to feel.

“Do you need anything?” Alex asked nervously. “Should I go find a hotel?”

“There aren’t any hotels around here,” Maggie shook her head and shifted bloodshot eyes to Alex. “I’ll be okay staying here.”

Alex looked back at the house, knowing it was saturated with awful memories for Maggie. It worried her. “If you’re not, we have a motorcycle. We can drive as far as it takes,” she assured Maggie. She wanted to put her arm around her ex, but the lines were blurry, and it was late at night.

Maggie nodded. “Thank you.” She started to reach for Alex’s knee, but stopped herself halfway. She folded her hands together in her lap. “For everything. You didn’t have to come all the way out here for me.” She tilted her head in a way that was familiar and warm, her hair falling around her neck and away from her face.

Alex took a bold move and placed her hands on top of Maggie’s. “I’ve always got your back.”

Maggie’s breath was shaky as she looked at Alex’s hand on hers. It was allowing herself to give into something she’d wanted for a long time. She had missed Alex desperately, and nights at the alien bar to drown her sorrows just served to remind her of Alex.

Now she was with Alex in her childhood home, helping her grieve the loss of a parent.

Maggie pulled back when she could feel herself slipping back into the easy comfort of being with Alex. She turned away so she wouldn’t have to meet her eyes and looked up at the sky. “I almost forgot about all the stars out here.”

Alex nodded looking toward the sky as well. “It’s a lot. I mean I’ve been camping, but this is…”

“The middle of nowhere,” Maggie answered with a small chuckle.

“And I thought Midvale was far away from civilization,” Alex joked. It felt good to joke with Maggie again.

There was a creak near the house and Maggie turned on instinct toward the door. Her aunt stood in the yellow light emanating from the house, outlined like a sepia angel. For a second, her aunt looked just like her mom. Then the sting of knowing her mom was gone hit her all over again.

“Do you two want something to eat?” Caroline asked.

Maggie exhaled, not feeling like she’d be able to eat for a few days, although she could feel she needed to.

Alex stood up and took Maggie by the elbow, pulling her up as well. “Yes.”

Somehow when they got into the kitchen, Maggie and Caroline ended up sitting at the table while Alex moved around the kitchen, warming up some soup for Caroline and insisting that Maggie at least eat some toast.

“It’s late,” Caroline moved the soup around in her bowl after a few half-hearted bites.” I’m sure you two are tired after your flight.”

Alex looked to Maggie and found Maggie looking back. Their knowing gaze warmed Alex’s insides. They could communicate without speaking. Alex could see Maggie start to crack as smile and Alex realized what she was smiling about. It was nice having someone who knew Kara’s secret to conspire with.

“It was a long flight,” Maggie added. She genuinely yawned and finished her toast.

“Are you going to be okay in your old room?” Caroline asked, leaning heavily on the table.

Maggie nodded. “I’ll be fine.” She said it with enough conviction to even maybe convince herself.

Caroline stood up and carried her soup bowl to the sink, ending up washing most of it down the drain. “Thank you for dinner, Alex.” She moved to Alex and pulled her into a hug. “And thank you for coming.”

“Anything you need,” Alex told Caroline, hugging her back.

Caroline smiled and pulled away. She looked at Alex’s face, seemingly studying it with a kindness before her smile turned sad. “Goodnight, ladies.”

She moved toward the back of the house where the guest room was.

Maggie and Alex carried their luggage up the old, creaky stairs and down the short hallway to the door on the right. Maggie stopped in the doorway and looked inside, taking in her old room. She didn’t pause long though, because she didn’t want old feelings to keep her from a bed.

Her twin bed was still up against the far wall, and her desk was on the perpendicular wall. Maggie turned on the light and the ceiling fan started spinning as well.

“I’ll…” Maggie started, gesturing to the floor. “Get some blankets and…”

“I got it,” Alex unzipped her backpack and pulled out a much smaller dark green bag. She dropped her backpack on the ground and unzipped the green bag, then tossed it on the floor next to the bed. After a second, a full sized sleeping bag had unraveled itself.

“You can’t sleep on the floor.” The exhaustion was heavy in Maggie’s voice. “Even with your weird DEO toys.”

“I can,” Alex finally reached out and touched Maggie’s arm. “Go get ready for bed and I’ll change the sheets.”

Maggie stopped, letting Alex’s touch linger on her arm. She could feel an emotional confession on the tip of her tongue. She was exhausted and struggling with a loss that didn’t fully feel real. The logical part of her brain overrode the need to tell Alex that she missed her. She nodded slowly and stepped out of Alex’s reach, picking up her bag on the way out the door.

Alex watched Maggie step out, knowing that Maggie had to be having a lot of conflicting feelings. Her mom had all but disowned her, and now she was dead without any kind of resolution. It was a difficult situation which Maggie was handling with all the strength and thoughtfulness Alex expected from her.

She managed to find the extra sheets in the hallway linen closet and changed the sheets before Maggie got back. Maggie had taken a bit longer than usual and Alex could see the weariness in Maggie’s face and the red outline of her eyes.

Maggie stopped in the door of the room and just looked in the room, tears gathering in her eyes.

“Oh, honey,” Alex didn’t stop herself from pet names and movedto envelop Maggie in her arms.

She felt Maggie’s head fall onto her shoulder and her body lean completely into her. She sniffled, trying to keep everything in. She didn’t want to cry. Her mom didn’t want her so why would she care if her mom died. But she did. It hurt her. It hurt that her mom died without the two of them reconciling.

She let herself feel for a few more seconds before stepping away from Alex. “You must be tired with your faster than a jet flight here.”

Alex didn’t want Maggie closing off because she thought Alex was tired. “I’m fine.”

Maggie gave Alex a flash of a smile that was meant to convey that she was trying to worm out of sharing her feelings. She turned on the lamp on the desk and turned off the overhead light. “The bathroom is at the end of the hallway.”

Alex took that as her cue to get ready for bed. It took her a lot less time than Maggie, but when she returned, Maggie wasn’t in the room. Alex set her toothbrush back in her backpack and was about to go looking when she heard Maggie coming up the stairs.

Alex smiled gratefully when Maggie walked into the room with a glass of water and offered it to her. Alex accepted the glass and took a long drink.

After her drink, Alex saw Maggie eying her sleeping bag and swiftly set the water on the nightstand and dropped onto the sleeping bag.

Maggie shook her head, turned off the lamp, and crawled onto her childhood bed that probably hadn’t seen use since she’d been kicked out. It creaked and moaned. It was stiff, but it was okay for Maggie. She turned the pillow behind her head and lay on her side, facing Alex. She didn’t comment on Alex diving for the sleeping bag before her. It wasn’t a fight she would win anyway.

“It’s really dark in the middle of nowhere,” Alex whispered into the pitch dark.

“It is,” Maggie replied. She let the silence settle around them before adding, “Do you need a night light?”

Alex took her phone out of her pocket and turned the screen on. It was extra bright against the inky night. “No.”

Maggie watched Alex’s face in the glow of her phone from the edge of her mattress. “How’s Kara?”

Alex finished her text to her sister and turned her screen off. She was extra blind for a few seconds, but she looked up and to the left, hopefully in Maggie’s direction anyway. “She’s visiting Clark’s parents in Kansas. And she offered to fly cookies over. They’re apparently the best cookies in the galaxy.”

“I trust Kara,” Maggie smiled down at the faint outline of Alex. “If anyone knows the best cookies in the galaxy, it’s her.”

“Do you want some?” Alex asked.

“Not tonight,” Maggie replied. She pulled her blanket up over her shoulders and scooted closer to the edge of her bed, hoping to make out some of Alex in the dark. There was a faint bit of moonlight coming through the window, but because of the nightstand, not enough was hitting Alex to outline anything other than her legs. “Thank you for coming.”

Alex had so many ways to reply to that statement, but none of them felt appropriate. She didn’t want to tell Maggie that she’d always love her and would always be there for her in so many words. After a long silence she very quietly replied, “Ride or die.” And it felt like the perfect thing to say until she realized exactly what she said.

She sat up quickly and scooted toward the bed. “I didn’t mean… that was a poor choice of words. I’m so sorry.”

She could hear Maggie chuckle in the dark. “I know what you mean and it’s fine.” Alex felt fingers seeking out and tickling her arm that was resting across the mattress before Maggie’s hand settled on her forearm. “I hope you know I’d still do the same for you. Ride or die. Always.”

Alex was out of the shadow of the nightstand and Maggie could see her face, chin resting on the edge of the bed. She moved her hand from Alex’s arm, toward her face. Her fingertips grazed Alex’s forehead as she pushed Alex’s hair away from her face. It was a motion she dearly missed, almost as much as she had dearly missed Alex. It was a lot to handle in the wake of her mother’s passing.

Alex could just barely make out Maggie’s face, but she could see the tears flood Maggie’s eyes. She could see them overwhelm her and started to spill down her cheeks.

“Hey,” Alex could immediately feel Maggie’s pain and swiftly moved from the floor onto the bed, lying next to Maggie and gathering her up in her arms. She held Maggie firmly against her, Maggie limply complying before pushing herself into Alex.

Alex wanted more than anything to take the pain from Maggie. It hurt almost as much that Maggie wasn’t a sobbing crier. She was a silent, stoic fountain of tears.

Tears started to gather on her shirt, but Alex didn’t make a move at all. She was just going to let Maggie expel everything and hold her, wishing all the pain away.

They were still for so long that eventually Maggie fell asleep. Alex followed close behind her, having had a long day as well.


	3. Chapter 3

Maggie hadn’t slept well. The only reason she was still in bed when dawn broke was because she didn’t want to wake Alex. Sweet, supportive Alex with her skin that glowed in the early morning sun and her hair that fell around her face in messy strokes.

Maggie had fallen into gazing at Alex a few times in the night, but seeing Alex in the rising sun was watching a creature that was nearest to an angel that she’d ever seen. She had seen Alex sleeping at dawn many times. Their jobs weren’t conducive to a regular sleeping schedule so when she’d sneak in just before the sun came up, Maggie would slip into bed and watch Alex. A woman so lethal when she was awake was so ethereal when she was asleep.

And Alex was the reason Maggie was managing relatively well under the current circumstances. At least that’s how Maggie felt. She felt like a porcelain vase that was full of cracks that were barely holding together while water was constantly being poured in. But knowing that she could look back for Alex and be offered a supportive smile and a hand on her back, even the gentlest and shortest of touches, Maggie could keep going a little while longer.

But it was a dangerous feeling because the problem with being held together by someone else was that when they left, everything falls apart.

That thought settled over Maggie like a suffocating blanket. It was so heavy that she pushed off the bed, swiftly and without much movement. She hadn’t disturbed Alex in the least. It was a practiced move and even when they were together, it was still a panic riddled move. Maggie never liked to depend on other people and when she found herself depending on Alex… she was scared. She’d get out of bed and pace around Alex’s apartment talking herself in and out of being in a relationship with Alex. But in the end, the warm feeling of peace and calm Alex brought her always won.

Except that there was a barrier between them. They weren’t together. They had broken up. For good reason… well… a decent reason. Sort of.

Maggie took in Alex one more time like a breath of crisp, spring air that bolstered her to face the day. Then she exited the room to face the harsh reality.

Alex woke up to her phone ringing.

She pushed up from the bed, hair hanging in her eyes. She reached across the bed to the nightstand and grabbed her phone. When she pulled it, she didn’t see that it was plugged in and the charger came out of the outlet behind the nightstand with a series of cascading thuds.

Alex sat up and ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it out of her face as she answered the phone. “Hey Kara.”

“Hey,” Kara answered brightly. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“Yeah,” Alex slid out of the bed and looked outside. The sun was higher than she thought it’d be. “I needed to get up anyway. I can’t believe I slept this late.”

“I’m jealous,” Kara answered, sounding like she was eating. “I’ve been working on a farm.” Kara chuckled. “A farm, Alex. Like a real farm. I touched a pig.”

“Yeah?” Alex asked, because it sounded like Kara was really excited and wanted to talk about it, but she was worried about where Maggie was off to.

“A guy got stuck under a tractor,” Kara added. “But he was fine after I pulled it off of him.”

That statement pulled Alex’s full focus back to the conversation. “Wait, you weren’t in uniform?”

“There wasn’t time,” Kara replied, more food in her mouth. “And it was the same guy Clark pulled a tractor off of. He won’t tell.”

Alex hummed in disapproval. She didn’t like it when Kara saved people without her skirt and cape. But she had other pressing issues. At worst, the story of a farm girl lifting an entire tractor could end up in a tabloid since it was so far out of the city. “Maybe he should stay away from tractors.”

“It was Uncle Jonathan so that probably won’t happen,” Kara replied. Her voice got less excited and matched more of Alex’s mood. “How’s Maggie?”

“I don’t know,” Alex looked around the room. “When I woke up, she was gone.” As her eyes scanned the room that had belonged to adolescent Maggie, she spotted a figure in the doorway. With a short gasp, Alex put her hand on her chest.

“Sorry,” Maggie gave a short, sheepish wave from the door. Then she stepped in. “I’m just going to change before we go to the funeral home. Tell Kara I said hi.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” Alex asked Maggie.

Maggie paused just before she got to the closet and nodded. “If you – if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Tell Maggie I said hi,” Kara spoke into Alex’s ear.

“Of course not,” Alex spoke to Maggie.

“Uh, okay,” Kara replied to Alex’s statement to Maggie. “Never mind then.”

“No,” Alex sighed. “I didn’t mean you.” She looked at Maggie who seemed confused as well. Alex knew that both women were having issues understanding who she was communicating with. “Okay.” She pointed to Maggie. “Maggie, of course I will go with you.” Then she turned away from Maggie before turning back around. “Also, Kara says hi.” Alex turned the phone on speaker and pointed it at Maggie.

“Hey Kara,” Maggie said to the phone.

“Hey Maggie,” Kara’s voice was sympathetic. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Maggie lied cordially. “How’s Kansas?”

“I’m farming,” Kara answered, obviously proud of herself. “I don’t know why I don’t come out here more often.”

“Where is the closest potsticker place?” Maggie asked, pulling a shirt out of her closet.

There was a pause and then Kara chuckled. “Okay that’s why. I have to go do something to corn I think.” She paused. “Hey, I can make popcorn with my eyes.” There was a soft gasp. “A whole field of popcorn.”

Maggie and Alex met each other’s eyes and shared an amusement that came with knowing Kara Zor-El Danvers really well.

“Anyway, if you two need anything I can be there in thirty seconds,” Kara spoke again.

“Thank you, Kara,” Maggie said, and she meant it. She had missed Kara as well. Kara was like a tiny, aggravating little sister she loved to death. When she lost Alex, she lost a small family as well.

Once Alex told her sister goodbye, she stood by the window, watching Maggie push around old clothes that hung in her closet. “Are those from high school?”

Maggie nodded. “In my haste to get here, I didn’t pack very well.” She pulled out an old, ratty t-shirt, the album cover for The Cranberries’ No Need To Argue album starting to fade on the front. She turned to Alex and held it up to her chest.

Alex grinned. “You had amazing taste as a teen.”

Maggie shook her head and put it back. “Not quite something to wear to a funeral home.” She grabbed another shirt. It was plain grey and didn’t seem to have a logo on it at all. Maggie stripped off the shirt she had worn to bed and tossed it toward the door. Her dirty shirt landed about six inches away from an oddly bare spot on the floor.

“Well there used to be a laundry basket there,” Maggie pulled on the grey shirt. She looked back at Alex when it was over her arms, but before she ducked her head into it. Alex was poking around in her own bag. “Do you need something too?”

Alex looked toward the closet and stepped past Maggie who was finishing putting on her shirt. It was the most natural thing in the world – standing next to each other and picking out something to wear. Alex looked through the clothes, but nothing looked appropriate to her. Apparently teenaged Maggie had to be emblazoned with some kind of band name at all times.

“This is fine,” Alex gestured to the jeans and t-shirt she had grabbed from her own stash of clothes at Kara’s apartment. “I’ll wear my jacket over it.” Then she looked to Maggie. “If that’s okay with you.”

“Yeah,” Maggie shrugged. “I don’t know what to wear to a funeral home when I’m the person there to pick out caskets. I’m usually just there to ask questions about the deceased.”

Alex nodded. “Me too.” She sighed and looked at the clothes before starting to get undressed as well.

She felt three tentative fingers on her back and every muscle of her body tensed.

Maggie muttered a quick, “Excuse me,” and leaned around Alex to get her phone off of the bed. She too felt a jolt of something in her fingers that touched Alex, but was scared that if she yanked her hand away, it might offend or alert Alex to what she was feeling. So she let her hands fall away naturally and turned to the door. “I’ll go see if Aunt Caroline is ready.”

Alex let out a gust of air after Maggie left the room and pulled on her shirt. She mentally berated herself for feeling a pulse of electricity when Maggie touched her in the most innocent way. She wasn’t there to win Maggie back or to have any kind of romantic entanglement. But that didn’t stop the burn from where her fingertips had brushed against her skin.

She rubbed the area of her back, hoping to dissipate the lingering feeling, and massaging it for a moment made the feeling go away. She grabbed her jacket and phone before following Maggie.


	4. Chapter 4

The funeral home looked exactly like a funeral home should. It was a long, single-story building two towns away with a driveway that curled under the bulky square awning. Alex parked in the lot to the right of the building and looked to the seat next to her. Maggie hadn’t said anything on the drive over and Caroline had only spoken to give Alex directions.

Alex didn’t want to be the first to open the door because it felt like she would be rushing them. So she waited. They all sat in silence until eventually, Caroline reached between the front seats and touched Maggie’s shoulder for a moment, then withdrew her hand and opened her door.

Alex waited for Maggie to get out, then met the pair at the front of the car. Caroline’s arm was protectively around Maggie and they held each other as they walked toward the door. Alex lagged behind, not sure what else to do.

They stepped out of the sun under the awning and Alex shuffled around them to open the door. She held it politely for them and Maggie flashed her a grateful look that Alex replied to with a nod.

A man in a suit stood from a tidy desk immediately to the right of the door. It was so clean and he looked so surprised at their entrance that Alex was sure the desk was never actually used for anything but greeting mourners. He smiled cordially, not too wide, but enough to be polite and respectful. It was a very rehearsed smile. “You must be the Sawyer family.”

Maggie nodded. She swallowed so she could speak, standing in for her aunt who was starting to tear up. “I’m Maggie. Elaine’s daughter.”

The man pattered around the desk and shook Maggie’s hand with both of his. “I’m Garret, the funeral director.” He turned politely to Caroline. “You must be Caroline, the sister.” His plump face was kind as he touched Caroline’s shoulder.

When his eyes moved to Alex, there was a pause and a moment of panic where Alex wasn’t sure how to introduce herself. Garret shook her hand and Alex’s only reply was, “I’m Alex.”

He nodded quickly and shuffled back toward the desk and past it to a set of elegant double doors. “We’ll head into the back. I want to make this as quick and painless as possible. Our floor models are through these doors. We have urns and caskets, whichever you prefer.” He pushed down the brass handle and opened the door.

Maggie and Caroline followed in a small, sad Sawyer huddle. Alex waited until they were a few steps away before following, wanting to leave a buffer for the family.

But just before they got to the door, Maggie reached one hand back without stopping her walk or ever looking back. Alex knew it was for her as it had been so many times before. She slid her fingers between Maggie’s, determined to be the support Maggie needed.

They spoke about where the funeral would be and if there would be a wake. They picked out a casket and decided what time of day to do the burial. There were so many decisions to make and Caroline and Maggie sat in front of a large cherry wood desk with a shiny top and made one decision after another. And through every decision, Alex held Maggie’s hand in both of hers, sitting in a chair that had to be dragged over from across the room. She’d rub Maggie’s knuckles or press her palm to Maggie’s. She did everything she could to support Maggie without saying a word.

“Do you have a restroom?” Caroline asked after it looked like they had made the final plans.

Garrett nodded and walked her toward the back of the funeral home, leaving Alex and Maggie standing at the desk. Maggie wanted to leave as soon as possible so she started for the front door. Alex never let go of her hand and she was thankful for it as they meandered through the hallways toward the Midwestern afternoon.

They got to the entrance where the first desk stood and Maggie stopped walking. She pivoted on her left heel and slowly put her arms around Alex. Alex immediately held her back, snaking her arms as far around Maggie as they’d go.

“Thank you for coming,” Maggie spoke into Alex’s shoulder.

Alex closed her eyes and rested her head against Maggie’s. “Always.”

Maggie dropped back on her heels and into her own space, eyes catching Alex and not letting go. She felt better just looking at Alex. She took a breath and shoved her hands into her back pockets. “I need a drink.”

“I saw… what I’m pretty sure was a bar on the way here,” Alex gestured outside.

“Oh, are we going to get a drink?” Caroline walked through the double doors. She kept walking past the desk and slipped an arm through Maggie’s and her other through Alex’s, using her momentum to pull them with her out the door. “I’m buying the first round.”


	5. Chapter 5

The first bar they found looked to have been a bank once.  There was still a bank-like sitting area to the left and the outer shell of banker cubicles to the right. As they passed, Maggie spotted a pool table in the middle of the outer cubicle walls.

The bar itself was just the teller stations without the privacy stalls. The bartender looked surprised to see people and quickly changed the channel on the TV behind the bar, embarrassed that he’d been caught watching soap operas.

He narrowed his eyes at the ladies walking in. “This ain’t a bank no more.”

“We’re looking for alcohol,” Caroline called back. She looked around and pointed to the closed off area around the pool table. “I’ll take a Long Island iced tea in here.”

“Whiskey,” Maggie called, following her Aunt. “Double and neat.”

Alex paused before followed them. “Uh, water and beer. Whatever is on tap.”

The pool table was the centerpiece of the closed off space with a billiard light dangling from the ceiling, the only light in the cubicle area. There were stools haphazardly placed against the walls.

They had the whole space to themselves, and Caroline went straight for the rack of pool cues nailed to the wall.

“So,” Caroline started before the drinks had even arrived, “Did I ever tell you about the time Maggie and I were at the gym and she was so distracted by one of the trainers that she fell off of the treadmill?”

Alex grinned, loving where this was going. “No. I haven’t heard that one.” She looked to Maggie and saw her goodheartedly rolling her eyes. “That doesn’t sound like Maggie though.”

“Oh,” Caroline chortled. “Maggie was not always the smooth operator you see before you.” She offered Maggie a pool cue as a peace offering, but continued her story. “So Maggie had a crush on this trainer named Jessie.”

Alex sat on a stool and watched the Sawyer women drink, tell stories, and play pool for the best part of two hours. She was so happy to be a part of it. Caroline and Maggie played off each other so well. They were fairly evenly matched pool players and both quick to counter an embarrassing story with another embarrassing story.

When it was apparent they’d played out the bar at only one in the afternoon, Alex drove them to the nearest restaurant, a small diner, and they had burgers and milkshakes to wash down the alcohol.

Caroline was speaking about how hard it had been for Maggie being gay in Nebraska as a preface to why she moved Maggie to a big city out of state. Alex noticed the upturned nose of the waitress that walked by when she overheard. She shot a disgusted look at the table, but Alex was the only one that seemed to notice. It made her uncomfortable like there was suddenly a huge, rock hard lump under the vinyl on her booth bench.

When they left, Maggie pulled Alex back while Caroline happily took the entire cherry pie she’d bought to the car. “Hey, what’s wrong? You got really quiet in there.”

Alex shook her head, not remembering that she had shut down almost completely. “I just… I was…” She could see that Maggie wasn’t going to let her go until she got the truth. “That waitress in there was…”

With a slow upward tick of her chin, Maggie knew what Alex was getting at. “I know. I saw.”

“I didn’t think you did,” Alex confessed.

Maggie smiled sadly. “I always do.” She put her hand on the small of Alex’s back and slowly started guiding her to the car. “But, when I was younger, Caroline and I decided that we’d just ignore stuff like that. They don’t want me to be happy, but if I ignore them, I’m still happy and they’re still miserable. No need to be miserable with them.”

She stopped at the car with Alex and turned to face her completely. “And don’t worry. In a few days, we’ll be back in National City, the statistically gayest city in the country.”

“I told Maggie to move there so she could have a chance at finding a girlfriend,” Caroline poked fun at Maggie over the top of the car. “You know because of the falling off stuff when pretty girls walk by thing. One of ‘em was bound to think it was charming.”

Maggie put her hand on Alex’s arm and shook her head. “I know it’s only three, but we should put her to bed.”

“I heard that Margarita,” Caroline stated and opened the backseat door to the car.

“Margarita?” Alex asked with a quirked eyebrow. That was new.

“When she gets fake mad at me, she makes up longer names,” Maggie walked back to her side of the car. “Just wait. It gets better.”


	6. Chapter 6

Caroline came up with some hilarious names on the way back to the house. Magelina was Alex’s personal favorite.

But as they neared the house, the jovial mood died down, every bump in the driveway reminding them that there was still more to do and a funeral coming up.

When they walked into the house, Caroline spotted the stacks of papers she was still going through and the list of people she still needed to call. She sighed heavily, dropped her purse on the couch as she walked past it, and settled back at the kitchen table that had been her base of operations for the last two days.

Maggie was still standing in the living room when Alex came back from the bathroom. Alex paused near the stairs and waited for a moment for Maggie to recognize her. When Maggie never looked up from the spot in the fireplace she was staring at, Alex asked. “What’s wrong?”

Maggie bit her lip, all the joy from their post-funeral home trip home was gone. She was back in bereavement mode. “I don’t know what to do with this place.”

It took Alex a moment, but she finally got what Maggie was talking about. The house around them and the land around it. Maggie’s childhood home.

Eliza still owned Alex’s childhood home, though she was rarely there. But Alex and Maggie had different experiences. The place where they stood had been a place of happiness and a place of pain for Maggie. Alex couldn’t imagine having to decide what to do with it.

“You can think about it,” Alex walked behind Maggie who seemed to be swimming in nostalgia and placed her hands lightly on Maggie’s shoulders. “You have time.”

Maggie put her hands on the back of the couch and leaned on it, “I just want to decide soon because Caroline doesn’t want it and I’m definitely not moving out here to the middle of nowhere.”

“It’d be a cute B&B,” Alex took a few paces away from Maggie and looked up and around.

Maggie broke into a smile. “What is it with you and B&Bs?” She pushed off the couch and faced Alex who couldn’t stop a grin from an argument they’d always had.

“They’re cute,” Alex spoke, but her eyes traced the dimples in Maggie’s cheeks and the way her hair fell off to the side. They moved over every inch of Maggie reminding Alex in the dim afternoon light everything she loved about Maggie. She yanked herself out of her reminiscence and crossed her arms. “They’re charming. And you liked that one we went to in Vermont. Admit it.”

Maggie put her hands up. “I liked it until there was no lock on the door and the owner really wanted us down for breakfast.”

“We don’t need locks,” Alex argued. “We’re both highly trained fighters.”

“You’d think someone who has been kidnapped more than once would appreciate a lock on the door,” Maggie poked back.

“Kidnapped?” Caroline interjected as she walked into the living room. She pulled open the blinds, flooding the room with sunlight and making Alex and Maggie realize exactly how close they had stepped to each other during their faux argument.

Alex cleared her throat and shuffled away from Maggie, toward the kitchen. “Uh, kidnapped is a… strong word.”

“Who would do such a thing?” Caroline asked. “Was it an…” She whispered, “Alien?”

“C’mon, Aunt Caroline,” Maggie put her hands on her hips with the exhaustion of having this talk many times before. “Alien isn’t a bad word. A lot of my friends are aliens. No, an alien did not kidnap Alex.”

Caroline nodded. “I know, I know.” She stood behind the armchair and looked at her niece, then her niece’s… friend. She focused on Alex. “I’m glad you’re okay. How did you get out of it?”

“It was Maggie,” Alex gestured to Maggie. “She figured out where I was and she and Supergirl saved me.”

“Oh,” Caroline smiled wide and poked the air in Maggie’s direction. “Supergirl, huh? I’ve seen pictures of you two together at crime scenes on the news.”

“Oh no,” Maggie shook her head once and then again with her eyes closed. “Oh god, no.”

“You’re telling me you don’t at least have a crush on her?” Caroline gestured to the TV. “She’s cute and you speak so highly of her.”

Maggie put her hand on her forehead. “I’m gonna throw up.”

Alex put a fist over her mouth to try to stop her laughter, but it leaked out and she lost it.

“What’s so funny?” Caroline asked, looking between Maggie who looked like she had a migraine and Alex who had her hands on her knees, doubled over in laughter.

Maggie started to speak. “Yes, I know Supergirl. Very well.” When her Aunt made a face that looked like she was going to make some kind of joke, Maggie interrupted with a finger pointed at her aunt. “Not like that.” She put her hand down and rested them again on the back of the couch. “But I think of her more like a… kid sister.”

At the statement, Alex’s laughter dried up until it was quiet and still in the living room. She swallowed, the smile evaporating as she wiped the laughter tears from her eyes.

“So,” Maggie punched through the silence she realized she caused. “Long story short, I do  _ not _ have a crush on Supergirl. Aliens are good.” She bounced her fist on the back of the couch. “And Alex will  _ never _ be kidnapped again.” She chanced a glance at Alex, then back to her aunt. “The man who kidnapped her is in some kind of ashram in Thailand trying to… find himself or whatever.”

“You know where he is?” Alex asked softly.

Maggie tried to keep a stone front and didn’t look directly at Alex when she answered. “I keep track of him. It’s not that I don’t trust J’onn’s…” She gestured to her head so that she could have to explain what a mindwipe was to her aunt. “I just want to know if he comes anywhere near National City.”

Alex felt a sudden swell of emotions. For some reason, she had convinced herself that Maggie never even thought about her anymore. Instead, she was actively tracking the man who had kidnapped her to make sure it never happened again. That stacked with the fact that Maggie thought of Kara as a little sister as well pierced straight into Alex’s heart.

“I’m going to go clean out the barn,” Maggie finally spoke and hugged her aunt before walking upstairs to get changed.

Caroline nodded after Maggie and stepped in front of Alex when Alex moved toward the stairs as well. “Best to let her work in the barn for a little bit on her own.” She smiled fondly at Alex’s confusion then acceptance. She pulled Alex into a hug. “I can see this is going to be hard on both of you when it’s over so enjoy it while you can.”

Alex wasn’t sure what it meant, but she wrapped her arms around Caroline, a woman she had always wanted to meet, but never thought she would get the chance.

“Why don’t you head to the store and pick up a few things?” Caroline asked, pulling back, but still holding onto Alex’s arms. “I’m only ‘bout halfway through the list of people I need to call so you’d be doing me a huge favor.”

“Yeah,” Alex nodded. “Of course.”

She was given a list and the keys to Caroline’s rental car because Alex’s motorcycle wouldn’t carry everything Caroline requested. Caroline insisted on giving Alex her credit card to buy everything with, but Alex didn’t plan to use it.

Alex walked out to the car and opened the driver’s door. Just before she got in, she saw Maggie walk out of the house toward the barn. Jeans, plaid shirt, hair up, and gloves on, Maggie was determined. Alex took a deep breath and took out her phone as she sat in the driver’s seat. She sent a quick text before starting the car and leaving for the town grocery store.  _ Can you meet me in 15? _


	7. Chapter 7

“Yeah, I mean… we went for ice cream a few weeks ago after we busted an alien black market.”

Alex had figured as much, the way Maggie spoke about Kara to her aunt. She looked over at her sister. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You’re still… both of you are still not in great places in regard to each other,” Kara peeled the wrapper from the ice cream sandwich Alex got her. “And you’ve been really down since the breakup. I didn’t want to add to it.”

“How often do you work together?” Alex asked.

Kara took a bite of her ice cream sandwich and moved her head from side to side. “Like once a month.”

“How did I not know?” Alex asked, looking down at her feet that dangled over the ground. She leaned on the railing in front of her.

“A team effort,” Kara shrugged. “I asked Winn not to tell you and J’onn just kind of… read my mind.” She swallowed her bite and then put her hand out. “Not in a literal way.”

“I was wondering what happened,” Alex rested her cheek on the chipped white railing. “We all work in the same city on the same things.”

Kara nodded. “We wanted to protect you.”

“You don’t have to,” Alex offered.

Kara put her arm around Alex and leaned into her, resting her head on Alex’s. “You do it for us all the time.”

Alex sighed. “It’s gonna suck when we go back. Like breaking up all over again.” She tried to lose herself in the rustic beauty of the Midwest spread out before her. The flat lands and the repainted barns – the carless roads.

“I’ll have brownies ready,” Kara kissed her sister’s head and rubbed her back. “I’ll move the TV into the bedroom and we’ll make a weekend out of it.”

Alex sighed. She was glad to have the support of her sister and maybe knowing what was coming would make it easier, but no matter how prepared she was, the end was going to hurt like hell.

“Ice cream sandwich?” Kara asked, offering her half-eaten frozen treat to Alex.

Alex smiled. “No thank you.” She picked up her phone off of the metal grate under them and looked at the time. “I probably need to get back, though.”

“Me too,” Kara sat up and stood, holding her hand out for Alex. “Aunt Martha is making dinner.”

They both looked around to make sure no one was around before Kara gently flew them both to the ground from the top of the water tower.

Less than five minutes later, Alex walked into the house with two arms full of groceries. She bumped into the door, but managed to make it to the kitchen without dropping anything.

Caroline shot out of her chair when she saw Alex struggling. “Let me help you.” She took a bag from Alex and peered inside as she walked to the kitchen counter with it. “I’ll get dinner started in a few minutes. I just finished calling all the relatives and I need a glass of wine first.”

Alex put her bags down and leaned on the counter, shooting Caroline a sympathetic look. “That must have been tough.”

Caroline nodded. “It doesn’t help that most of them don’t like me very much. I was the pariah long before Maggie.” She looked around the kitchen. “I think I left my knives in my room.” When she saw a shocked look on Alex’s face, she grinned. “Maggie never told you what I do for a living?”

Alex tried to recalled and it finally dawned on her. “No. But she spoke about how well you cook so I should have known.”

“You’ll have to come by my restaurant next time you’re in Central City,” she smiled and walked toward the stairs. “Maybe go check on Maggie though. Take her some water. And on your way back, clear off the grill if you don’t mind.”

Alex nodded, knowing that was more of a direction to gauge Maggie’s mental state.

Alex went to the kitchen, looking for something to put water in. After several unsuccessful attempts at finding where the glasses were, Alex pulled open a drawer on the overriding instinct of searching a suspect’s house during an investigation. Just as she was closing it and chastising her muscle memory, she froze.

She pulled the drawer open again and reached inside, pulling out several brittle newspaper clippings. They were all from the National City newspaper and Catco prints. All of the articles featured Maggie in some way. Some were just pictures. There were a few stills of Maggie and Supergirl. Some of Maggie in the background of a shot at a crime scene. When it was just text, Maggie’s name was underlined. The clippings went all the way back to when Maggie was a regular patrol officer making her first piece of news as a hero who talked down a man about to jump in front of a train.

Alex could hear footsteps coming down the stairs and quickly shoved the clippings back into the drawer, then closing it as quietly as possible before resuming her search for glasses. She found a dusty liquor cabinet and did a quick inventory of it before closing it again. She finally found the cupboard full of large mason jars that were apparently used for drinking.

“No idea why my sister kept all those jars,” Caroline commented as returned to the kitchen and started extracting food from the grocery bags.

Alex forced a small chuckle as she filled up one of them to take outside. As she pushed open the old wooden door, she contemplated telling Maggie about the drawer of clippings. Eventually Maggie was going to find it, especially if she decided to sell the house. Alex tried to decide if it was better to tell her before she found it while cleaning out her mom’s stuff.

Alex kicked a stick off of the paver path that led to the barn. She could hear metal clanking around as she neared and was curious to see what Maggie had been doing for the past few hours. The barn doors were wide open and latched into place to keep them from closing.

When she stepped into the opening, a large tractor took up the entire door frame of the bar. It looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time, but the glass door round the operator’s seat was ajar and a line of tools sat next to the front tire, nearest Alex.

“Maggie?” Alex called.

“One sec,” Maggie called back, a disembodied voice coming from somewhere in or around the tractor.

“No rush,” Alex answered, following Maggie’s voice around the tractor to where Maggie was kneeling between two massive tires. “I just brought water.”

Maggie used her sleeve to push sweaty hairs out of her face and stood up. “Thank you.” She put her hand between her legs and squeezed them together to pull her glove off without touching it. The black patches of oil on the glove left a Rorschach design on her jeans.

She let the glove drop to the ground and accepted the water.

Alex looked around the barn, hands in her pockets. There was a lot of barn to cover and it didn’t look like Maggie had touched anything besides the tractors. Chest-high stalls lined the right side of the barn and a new looking set of wooden stairs led up to a loft that was impossible to see into from the ground.

“Caroline is making dinner,” Alex commented.

Maggie nodded after chugging half the mason jar of water.

Alex took a few cautious steps past Maggie and the tractor to get a better look inside. She found far more junk than anticipated. There were old hunks of metal tucked away in the front stalls. There were old signs and things Alex couldn’t identify. Some things near the back were covered in tarps.

All of it looked like it would be difficult to clear out with the tractor in the way. “Fixing the tractor?”

Maggie shrugged. “Trying.” She pointed to her phone on the ground with a video paused halfway through someone pointing at part of a tractor engine. “Between me and YouTube I think we can get it out of the way at least.”

Alex nodded though her brain felt like it was on fire. There was no way to describe what her body was doing. It was rioting and vibrating so hard, she felt frozen in place. As she watched Maggie wrangle her glove back on and reach for a wrench, blood rushed through her veins at a grueling pace. If there was a sunset behind Maggie, she would be the cover of a romance novel Alex never knew she wanted to read.

“I have to go start the grill,” Alex blurted out, but tried to play off. “For dinner.”

Maggie nodded, not seeming to notice. Her focus was firmly on the tractor in front of her. “Thanks for the water.”

Alex quickly hopped over the tools and walked out of the barn. She rubbed her face as she made her way toward the back porch that extended from the paving stone trail that went to the barn. The pavers were uneven and not well cared for. The back porch itself was covered in leaves and the grill was no different. A dusting of yellow pollen sat on the grill as well, showing up bright on the black surface.

Alex swept the leaves off with her hand and found a coiled up garden hose under the bushes near the house. She turned on the water and sprayed off the top of the grill, washing most of the pollen away. After what she saw in the barn, she thought about turning the hose on herself, but felt it would be too difficult to explain.

The inside of the grill was fairly clean and she found a bag of charcoal in the metal enclosure below the grill. She decided to start it up and help Caroline with dinner.

After the charcoal was stacked and some leaves were sprinkled on top to act as kindling, Alex found an old lighter under the grill. She clicked down the button a few times, but found only a few sparks out of the end without flame. So she fell back onto her old training, finding two acceptable sticks and a rock that she could rub together to create an ember. A few minutes later, she had a fire going using nothing, but what she found and some friction.

Just as she was gently blowing on the embers she dumped onto the dried leave, the back door opened. When she leaves caught fire and started to engulf the charcoal, Alex stood up to admire her work.

“You know we have this stuff right?” Caroline walked over to the grill with a bottle of lighter fluid and a box of matches in her hand.

Alex saw that Caroline had come out to start the grill the traditional way and smiled sheepishly. “I actually didn’t even think to ask.”

“You’re a trip,” Caroline laughed and patted Alex on the back. “I’ll go get the steaks before you run out into the woods and kill something to eat with your bare hands.”

Alex enjoyed the fondness Caroline had for her and lamented that it was wasted because in a few days she’d probably never see her again. Alex knew the entire trip was going to be that kind of dichotomy, remembering what she loved or finding something new to get attached to, but always having the dread in the back of her mind about leaving it all behind.

A loud choking came from the barn. It stopped, then started again. Three large banging gasps before the tractor engine roared to life. Alex crossed her arms and watched the massive machine chug its way out of the barn a few feet, then stop. The engine cut off and Maggie opened the glass enclosure around the operator’s seat. She hopped down and tucked the keys into her pocket before making her way back toward the house.

Maggie was quiet as she passed Alex and only offered a brief, forced smile as she walked inside.

Alex waited a few seconds before going inside as well. She didn’t want Maggie to think she was following her around. She just wanted to head inside and see if Caroline need help. If she happened to see where Maggie went, it was just coincidence.

But she hadn’t waited long enough. Maggie was still in the middle of the stairs when Alex stepped inside. She could feel Maggie glance back at her, but forced herself to keep her gaze on the kitchen while she made her way to it.

“Oh, Scotch,” Alex mentioned as she walked into the kitchen to find Caroline clearing out the liquor cabinet.

The pipes in the walls groaned as water moved through them and up to the shower Maggie had just turned on.

Caroline set an unlabeled bottle on the kitchen table and kicked the empty liquor cabinet closed. “I don’t think this was Elaine’s. Most of it is dusty and she was more of a wine gal.” Her voice was wistful. It was evident she was missing her sister.

Alex couldn’t imagine losing her sister. Even if they were estranged. She had come close a few times and the thought alone made her nauseated. She choked back the fear of loss and crossed the kitchen to Caroline.

“Hey,” Alex’s voice was calm and kind. She stood next to Caroline until Caroline looked at her with watery eyes. Alex held her arms open and Caroline found a place in them, gratefully accepting Alex’s warmth.

Caroline hugged Alex tight and in a different way than Maggie did. It was a thankful and easy. It always took Maggie a moment to let herself feel it, but Caroline was all in, immediately.

“Thank you,” Caroline took a step back and patted Alex’s cheek. “I’m so glad you’re here. We both know Maggie doesn’t handle extreme emotional upheaval well. Or at all.”

Alex nodded. “I know. That’s why I came.”

Caroline stared at Alex’s face and shook her head. “I’m sorry you two couldn’t make it work, but I’m glad I got to meet you.”

“I’m glad I got to meet you, too,” Alex could feel the loss of her relationship with Maggie and the familial relationship with Caroline choking her up again. “And I’m glad Maggie has you.”

Caroline looked like she wanted to say something else, but instead turned away and picked up the plate of raw steaks. “Ready to make dinner, Nature Master?”

The moment was gone and Alex pulled herself back to reality with a fond smile. “Yeah. Do you need me to do anything?”

“Open that bottle of wine on top of the fridge and pour a Scotch for the Detective,” Caroline clicked the tongs together and started toward the back door. “And maybe find some plates. I was thinking we could eat outside.”

Alex liked the idea of eating outside as well. She rummaged around under the sink and acquired a rag and some cleaner that she carried outside. She cleaned the leaves and the pollen off of the iron patio table and the chairs around it. Then she set the table with three plates, silverware for all, a wine glass, the bottle of wine, and two tumblers with the bottle of scotch between them. It was a nice setting in the early minutes of sunset. A cool breeze swirled around Alex as she admired her work, heralding the transition from warm afternoon to pleasant evening.

Maggie came outside just as Caroline was plating dinner. Alex gestured Maggie to her seat, pulling it out for her, but not holding it while Maggie sat down because that seemed too familiar. Maggie stepped to the chair Alex pulled out for her and took in dinner, steak, asparagus, garlic mashed potatoes, and Scotch. She was famished and the meal in front of her looked like the perfect end to a long day.

“This looks amazing,” Maggie took her seat and looked up at her aunt.

She waved off the compliment. “It’s nothing. I was limited by the tiny grocery store available to me.” She looked over the wine bottle that had been on the refrigerator. She sighed. She smelled it, made a face, then poured it anyway.

Alex waited for Caroline to sit down before she sat down as well.

As soon as the food was cut into, the conversation stopped. It was truly one of the best steaks Alex had ever had and the sides were incredible. It was everything she could have asked for in a meal to end a taxing day.

Maggie cleaned her plate first and was on her second glass of Scotch when a strong gust of wind swept over them. She looked up at the sky that was darkening by the second from encroaching clouds and the setting sun.

There was so much nothing where she grew up that she could only focus on herself, and without something to keep her hands busy, she was collapsing inward. But her exterior was still and calm. She had gotten good at projecting a together front, no matter what was going on inside. She finished her second Scotch and poured a third.

Despite killing most of the bottle by herself, Caroline still looked over the wine bottle in disgust. “This is vile.”

Alex smiled easily, well into her second glass of Scotch. “The Scotch is good.”

“Papa did always have good taste in Scotch,” Maggie looked at her glass before finishing it off. She was done having emotions for the day. She was going to drink until she couldn’t feel anymore. She picked up the bottle of Scotch and refilled her glass.

There wasn’t much left in the bottle so instead of refilling her own glass, Alex left the rest of it for Maggie. She was going to switch to water to make sure both Sawyer women finished their nights off okay.

A strong gust of wind nearly knocked over Caroline’s empty wine glass. The blanket of clouds had reached the edge of the property and the air chilled considerably.

“That’s our cue,” Caroline picked up her wine glass and stood up.

“Is the cellar cleared out?” Maggie asked, slow to move.

Caroline shrugged. “I haven’t even checked. I didn’t think it was going to storm.”

Maggie took another sip of her drink. “I’m going to go check. Then I’ll put the tractor up.” She stood and started toward the far side of the house. She spun back around to add. “Alex, you might want to put the motorcycle in the barn.”

Alex nodded, arms full of dirty dishes. “Yeah, okay.”

Alex and Caroline took all the dishes inside and Caroline pushed Alex out of loading the dishwasher so she could save the motorcycle.

When Alex got to the motorcycle, Maggie was already backing the tractor into the barn. As Alex straddled the motorcycle and started it, she felt rain start to poke at the top of her head and shoulders. She pulled at the throttle and took it off of the dirt driveway, and toward the barn.

The tractor was in park when she pulled into the beams of the headlights and steered the motorcycle past the tractor, finding a nice place to tuck it into a stall.

It was raining in earnest when they each pulled a barn door closed. Alex waited for Maggie to lock it and they ran inside together. Just inside the back door, they shook off as best they could and kicked off their shoes.

“I forgot how quickly storms roll in up here,” Caroline commented, leaning against the sink and looking out the window. She had a glass of wine in her hand that was nearly empty.

Maggie leaned on the fireplace to pull her wet boot off. “There’s room in the cellar if we need to go in there.”

“Like tornado?” Alex asked, surprised.

Maggie smiled amusedly. “Welcome to Nebraska.” She dropped her wet boot with the other one.

“It would be a nice night for a fire if I was sure the chimney was clean,” Caroline commented. “Last thing we need is a fire.”

“There’s a window in my room with an eave over it so we can open it and hear the tornado sirens,” Maggie walked into the kitchen and picked up one of the tumblers on the counter next to the sink. Once of them was hers and one was Alex’s, but she didn’t really care which. She picked up the fullest one, added some more Scotch and made her way to the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”

Caroline picked up the bottle of Scotch and refilled the other tumbler. She held it up for Alex who was making her way to the kitchen.

“Oh, I wasn’t going to…” Alex started.

Caroline smiled knowingly. “We’re big girls. We’ve been drunk before and neither one of us has died.” She paused, obviously under the effects of the wine. “Okay, poor choice of words, but you may as well enjoy yourself now. Tomorrow isn’t going to be any better than today.”

Alex took the tumbler and held her arm out for Caroline. As guarded as Maggie was, Caroline was open and accepting of physical contact. Caroline slid under Alex’s arm and rested her head on Alex’s shoulder. “You’re the best of them, Alex Danvers.”

Alex smiled and closed her eyes. “I don’t know about that, but I love you both. I’ll be here whenever you need me.” There was a somber truth in her words. Even if they were broken up, even if they were fighting or whatever else, Alex would show up for Maggie for the rest of her life. She had no doubt that Maggie would do the same. It was the nature of their connection. It was constant and it was eternal.

“Alex.”

Alex let go of Caroline and turned around to find Maggie on the stairs, freshly changed into a button down denim shirt that had to be from Maggie’s current wardrobe and plain black sleep shorts. She was holding an old pair of sweatpants, the words  _ Athletics Dept. _ unironically printed on the hip. “I thought you might want to change.”

Alex nodded and carried her Scotch toward the stairs. It was very dim in the house and no one had made a move to turn on the lights. She felt safe and cozy as the rain picked up outside. She was comfortable. Comfortable was a foreign feeling to Alex, but she didn’t feel the need to be on guard and it could be the Scotch and it could be the atmosphere or the company, but her smiles came easy and her emotions were an accessible, tranquil pool.

Maggie hadn’t moved from the middle of the stairs with the sweatpants in her hand. She had heard what Alex had told her Aunt, and it stunned her. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been on the receiving end of that kind of unconditional love. She’d gotten hints of it when they were together, but there was a part of Maggie that was sure Alex would fall out of love with her. A year later, she was wrong and she was finally sure she’d continue to be wrong.

Alex’s fingers brushed against hers when she took possession of the sweatpants. “Thank you.” Muscle memory nearly carried Alex forward to kiss Maggie’s cheek. However, her head only dipped forward an imperceptible amount before she caught herself. Just enough to give her a solid whiff of Maggie’s shampoo as she passed.

Alex had been so good about not falling into physically affectionate habits since she’d arrived in Nebraska. She needed to get ahold of herself.

The roar of the storm grew with Alex’s every step toward Maggie’s room. She took a few sips of her Scotch, not feeling Maggie following her.  She stepped into Maggie’s room, the smell of the storm hitting her full on. Her sleeping bag was still on the ground, unused. Alex set her Scotch down on the desk and unfastened her pants, letting them fall to the ground. She pulled on the sweatpants and moved her right leg around. They were a little snug, but they would do to sleep in.

The open window drew her to it, the siren song of the rain. She had always loved storms, maybe because they never actually involved tornadoes where she was from. Just because she was thinking about it, her eyes scanned the sky for a funnel cloud of some kind, but she couldn’t find anything in the thick inky black. She could only see flashes in the lighting and so far, everything looked normal.

The rain made her a little nervous as it beat on the house because it reminded her of the time she had almost drowned in a cage. She took a few deep breaths, exercises that she’d taught herself under the watchful flashes of lightning.

She was so lost in the rain that she didn’t hear Maggie walk in.

“Hey,” Maggie kept her voice low as to not startle Alex. “You okay?”

Alex turned around and saw Maggie standing in the doorway to her bedroom with a candle in one hand and a Scotch in the other. Alex blinked slowly, trying to figure out what Maggie was trying to do with the candle.

The confusion was evident on her face. Maggie recognized it and moved to the desk to set the candle down. “The power went out. Did you not notice?”

“I guess not,” Alex looked around like it would help her figure out the power went out. There was just a general lack of light and that was it.

Maggie took a sip of her Scotch that was clearly the remainder of the bottle, coming up at over a double. “It’s an old house. Happens all the time.” She cleared her throat. “Aunt Caroline went to bed, but she told me to let you know that the power would be back on in the morning so you don’t have to pull apart the dining table for firewood yet.”

Alex smiled and ducked her head. “She’s never going to let me live that down.”

Maggie set her Scotch down next to the candle and Alex’s drink. She joined Alex at the window, the storm calling her to as well. The wind blew her hair back and tiny droplets of water ducked under the eave that protected the window. She kicked a pair of dirty pants where the drops of water flicked just in case there were more. “She likes you.”

“I like her too,” Alex answered earnestly. She looked out the window, eyes on the rain and clouds and lightning and wind. It was so beautiful. There were no trees or buildings to obstruct her view of it, so the storm was a top to bottom panorama laid out in front of her.

Maggie took a deep breath through her nose and paused thoughtfully. Alex knew what that meant. There were wheels turning in Maggie’s head. and she didn’t want that to mean Maggie would fall into a pit of unfeeling. It was where Maggie went when she was injured and Alex was sure if Maggie fell into it now, she wouldn’t come out anytime soon.

They both turned to each other at the same time, Maggie’s damp hair whirring around her, away from her face and Alex’s hand nervously fidgeting in front of her.

“Are you-“

“Alex, I-”

Then they stopped at the same time. Standing in the small sphere of light created by the single candle suddenly felt strange, but familiar. The were safe against the thrashing storm outside and the real world that had been looming around every corner since they’d arrived. It didn’t feel like Earth anymore. It was their own little bubble of comfort and contentment.

It was Alex who started moving first, but Maggie only gave her a half second head start. Their lips crashed together like two planets that had been fighting gravity for so long and finally gave in. Maggie’s fingers pushed into Alex’s hair and Alex’s hands slid around Maggie’s back, pulling their bodies together.

There was a crash of thunder and Alex pulled away. She was trying to keep her head on straight. She was trying to be reasonable and rational, but she was knee deep in Scotch and Maggie’s smell. Maggie’s shirt hung halfway unbuttoned and Alex wasn’t sure which one of them had done it.

And she wanted it. Fuck, she wanted it so bad. She could see the skin that made her heart beat faster than the speed of light and the lips that she craved so badly.

Maggie didn’t give her a chance to speak. She went back in for another kiss, but stopped just short. It was a patented Maggie Sawyer move to make sure Alex was into it at the time. And like most of the times before, Alex dove back in.

Alex reached down and grabbed the back of Maggie’s leg, pulling it around her waist in a practiced dance. Maggie lifted off the floor completely when her other leg found its way around Alex.

It was a small bedroom and only a few steps to the bed where Alex set Maggie down on her back. Maggie didn’t let her stand up in any way, instead of pulling her shirt over her head and her face back down for a kiss. Alex’s hands wandered under Maggie’s shirt, up her side and over her bra while the other hand braced her over Maggie.

She slid a knee between Maggie’s legs, a wicked move she’d learned from Maggie herself. A soft gasp broke the kiss and let Alex’s lips free to slide down Maggie’s neck.

Alex could feel fingers digging into her back, pent up tension begging to be let out. And as loud as the voice was in her head that screamed at her not to keep going, there was an entire flood of emotion and attraction and just plain fucking love that drowned it out.

Alex put her everything into it because it would probably be the last time. She took careful inventory of Maggie. The taste of her neck, the rippling muscles under her fingers., the short sounds that escaped her lips. The constantly mischievous smile that was visible even in the candlelight when Maggie rolled them over and straddle Alex’s hips.

Alex ran her hands up and down Maggie’s thighs and over her hips. She looked up at Maggie, bathed in the yellow glow and memorized everything she could see because it felt like the dream. She extracted her hands for the briefest moment to finish unbuttoning Maggie’s shirt.

Maggie sat still while she pulled the shirt open. Alex could feel a tremor run through her hands with the denim gripped tightly in her hands. Maggie tilted her head, her long raven hair falling to the side. Alex slowly pulled the shirt open until it slid down Maggie’s arms.

Alex ran her fingertips across Maggie’s abs and pressed her palm to Maggie’s ribs. She was always in complete awe of the woman before her. Something about her never seemed completely real. She could never stop touching Maggie’s skin, the pure wonder of such a beguiling creature taking over.

And there was an innocence in Maggie. One that never understood what Alex saw in her and one that never knew how to deal with it. She couldn’t reconcile how she felt and how she had been treated growing up with this feeling of warm light Alex filled her with. Every pass of Alex’s hands made her feel so much freer.

Alex sat up, not being able to stand her lips not being on Maggie. She went straight for the curve of Maggie’s neck and down her shoulder. She kissed her collarbone and back up her neck.

Hands snaked up her neck and Alex let Maggie guide their lips together again in a slow, emotional kiss.

Their exploration and reacquaintance with each other lasted hours. They were everything in their world for those hours. They were the beating hearts of the universe. They were singular and happy and sated. They were happy and in love. They were safe and they were doomed.


	8. Chapter 8

Alex was warm when she woke up. She felt a breeze swirl around her from the still open window. She stretched across the twin bed, taking up the full expanse. She wasn’t sure what happened to Maggie, but when she looked around the room, she was alone.

In all honestly, she didn’t expect Maggie to be there when she woke up. It may have been a good thing, because she wasn’t exactly sure how to face Maggie anyway.

But she had come because she wanted to help, and she wasn’t going to waste half the day hiding in the bedroom. She was going to confront it like an adult.

And that meant ignoring the two glasses of scotch that were still on the desk next to the puddle of wax on a plate. She would face the day with a clear head.

She took her time picking out something to wear from Maggie’s slowly dwindling reserve. She wore her own pants and that saved some time. There was a shirt in the closet that said  _ Varsity Cross-Country _ . It surprised Alex a little bit because Maggie used to say she’d rather die than run for no reason. Alex put it on and closed the closet door.

There was a pile of dirty clothes next to the door, both hers and Maggie’s. She made a mental note to do that laundry when she got a chance.

Then Alex went to the small bathroom to brush her teeth. She did it slowly, looking at herself in the mirror the entire time, having a mental conversation with the woman in the mirror.

Through the open door, she could hear Caroline talking downstairs. It sounded like she was finalizing funeral arrangements. That realization hit Alex with a wrecking ball of guilt. She had slept with Maggie two days before her mom’s funeral, and that felt like she had taken advantage. Not physical advantage, but emotional advantage.

Finally, after pulling herself together, Alex stepped down onto the first floor and saw Caroline back at the kitchen table. She hung up her phone and sighed heavily.

“Anything I can do?” Alex offered as she neared.

Caroline looked up and put on a smile. She shook her head and stood up. “It’s all details at the moment.” She turned to the kitchen counter. “Well, you could take Maggie’s coffee out to her.” She gestured to a mostly full French press and two plain white coffee mugs.

“Back in the barn?” Alex asked, picking up the mugs and the French press.

“Yeah, she already moved the tractor out.” Caroline looked thoughtfully at Alex. “I asked her again if she wants to sell this place or not, because the lawyer called again, and it’s… she’s having a hard time.”

Alex nodded and started toward the back door. “Please come get me if you need anything.”

“You’re too sweet,” Caroline called after her and walked her to the back door, opening it when they got there.

Alex walked across the patio washed clean by the rain, onto the path toward the barn that had stood tall and solid through the storm.

Alex rounded the side of the barn to the front where both massive doors were secured open again and squeezed past the tractor that wasn’t quite all the way out of the barn.

“Maggie?” she called.

Maggie stepped out from behind one of the stalls and held out a gloved hand to stop Alex. “Don’t step in that. It’s rusted.” She wiped her forehead and the stray hairs that had fallen out of her ponytail with the rolled up sleeve of her plaid shirt. Once she spotted the coffee, she shook her hand until the bulky leather glove slid off it. It dropped onto the dry, dirt floor. She did the same with the other one.

Alex found a massive wooden spool to set the coffee down on. She poured Maggie’s coffee and then handed it off. She took the second mug in her hand and poured coffee into it while taking in the barn. “This is huge. It was hard to tell just how big with the tractor in the middle of it.”

Maggie nodded without speaking. She took a sip of her coffee, eyes everywhere but Alex.

Alex took a sip of her coffee to give herself some time to think of something to say. She let her eyes roam the barn while she thought. A lot of it was filled with junk, things that were old and had been there long enough for grass to grow up through them. She still had no idea what was in the loft.

“Are you hungry?” Alex finally asked, not knowing what else to say.

Maggie shook her head. She took another sip of her coffee before setting it down and pulling her gloves back on. “There’s a guy coming for the scrap metal at noon. I want to get what I can out of here before that.” She reached for her back pocket and stopped halfway. “I left my phone inside. He’s going to call when he’s on the way.”

“I’ll get it.” Alex offered. She was at a loss for how to help Maggie but getting her phone could be a start.

Maggie sort of nodded and got back to work pulling pieces of metal out of the overgrown grass.

Alex left the coffee in the barn with Maggie and walked back into the house. Caroline waved at her as she walked toward the stairs, but continued to speak to whoever was on the phone. Alex was relieved that it sounded like Caroline was talking about food orders and not a funeral.

Alex took the stairs two at a time and hopped up on top of the creaky stairs with a renewed sense of purpose. It was only getting Maggie’s phone, but she had direction.

She had barely crossed the threshold of the bedroom when she heard Maggie’s phone ringing. The ringtone hadn’t changed since she’d last seen Maggie. She followed the sound to the bed and narrowed down the search area to the blankets on the bed.

Her hands dove into the blankets, fishing for the phone. She picked up one end of the blanket and tried to shake it out onto the bed. She spotted the phone too late, taking the wrong direction straight toward the floor. She managed to grab it, her fingers sliding across the screen. The phone went silent.

“Oh crap,” Alex turned the phone over, wondering who she had hung up on.

However, there was a face on the screen that was looking back on her.

“Um, hi?” the woman in the phone furrowed her brow at Alex.

Alex’s eyebrows jumped and her eyes widened. “Oh, hi. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… to answer.” She forced an awkward smile. “I was just getting the phone out of the bed and it was falling and I caught it the wrong way I guess.”

“I’m sorry, who are you?” the woman asked. “Where’s Maggie?”

“I’m Alex,” Alex put her hand on her chest, holding the phone at arm’s length. “Maggie is in the –”

“Alex Danvers?”


	9. Chapter 9

Alex had some idea of who she had accidentally met, and it felt so unlike Maggie. She wasn’t sure what to say to Maggie as she made her way up the stairs. She knew that she probably needed to apologize, but maybe also ask who it was. If Maggie had a girlfriend, Alex felt, after last night, she had a right to know.

As she neared, she could hear talking and stopped at the top of the stairs.

“I didn’t ask her to come,” Maggie’s voice came out of the open door of the bedroom.

Alex’s heart sank to her feet. She knew Maggie was talking about her and for a moment questioned her decision to show up at the airport like she had, running in at the first sign of Maggie in distress.

Maggie’s sigh made it out the door as well. “No. I need her to stay.”

And just like that all the tension melted from Alex’s shoulders. She had done the right thing.

There was another pause. “No. It’s fine. Stay in National City.” Another pause. “But…” then another. “Yeah, yeah I understand.” There was a long silence, and Alex felt it on both sides of the phone. Then Maggie added. “I’m sorry.”

There was silence after that, and Alex counted to ten before walking into the bedroom like she had just come up the stairs and hadn’t been listening. Maggie was sitting on the bed, looking at her phone.

Alex lingered in the doorway. When Maggie looked at her, she knew that Maggie knew she heard everything. She could see Maggie was shutting down. Emotionally, Maggie couldn’t take much more. But Alex still had to prod. “You okay?”

Maggie nodded. She stood up, dropping her phone on the bed. “I need to finish the barn.” She brushed past Alex, but stopped before pulling passing her.

She looked at Alex, holding her eyes. “We’ve never even been on a date. I keep putting her off. She just… she’s a crime scene tech. We met at work.” She paused, “You know I would never cheat.”

Alex knew how important it was for Maggie to clarify that. Trust was always a big thing for her. She always had a hard time trusting other people and felt like she needed to prove herself in order to be trusted.

“I know,” Alex nodded. “I know.”

“I actually forgot about her,” Maggie tried to lighten the mood as she started for the door again. “She’s not… uh, not a girl you take to the alien bar.”

Alex actually felt better knowing that Maggie hadn’t found someone to replace her and take to all Maggie’s favorite places. She didn’t know what to say, without making it seem like Alex was trying to prove herself better than whoever Maggie was talking to.

Maggie didn’t seem to have anything else to add, so she nodded once and disappeared down the stairs to lose herself in the barn and stew in her sadness.

Alex didn’t want to hover in the barn, and there wasn’t anything to do in the house. She had a lot of energy and nowhere to direct it. Alex needed to think.

And there was one way she would always expend energy and think. She dug out some of Maggie’s old gym clothes and pulled on some trainers she found lying around in Maggie’s old room. The driveway to the house was long, but she wasn’t sure how long. She would just run until she got tired.

The grinding sound of the dirt and pebbles under her feet was a calming cadence. As she ran, she’d never felt more isolated. She knew she was a short jog from a road and the house where Maggie and Caroline were, but the flat world around her made all the space feel so much more. In the middle of the driveway, it felt like her own world, vast and empty.

Alex got to the road and turned around. Her jog back was spent on the night before. The touches and the kisses. She had savored every second. She had missed how Maggie knew her body. She had missed how Maggie’s tasted.

She arrived near the house and turned back around toward the road. That leg of her jog was for self-reflection. She reminded herself why she and Maggie broke up, though it seemed so far away. The picture of her life with a child felt like it was fading.

The road was barren when she came upon it again. Alex had to remind herself that the state she was in was temporary. She was happy and it was temporary. She was with Maggie and it was temporary. She felt at home with Caroline and it was temporary. Once the funeral was over and everything was settled, Alex and Maggie would go back to National City and go their separate ways.

In the middle of her lap, she heard the rumble of an older vehicle behind her. She heard the wheels crunch on the driveway as it made its way toward her.

She stopped and put her hands on her head, not realizing how fast she had been going and how much oxygen she had been expending.

The light bar on top of the car gave away the kind of vehicle before Alex could see the Sheriff star on the side of it.

The late eighties model police car pulled up to Alex and stopped, window rolling down.

“Afternoon,” the man in the driver’s seat nodded to her. He looked about Alex’s age with close cropped brown hair and an unbuttoned uniform collar. “Detective Sawyer around?”

The question sent Alex’s mind racing through all the reasons a local police officer could want to speak with Maggie. Alex moved her hands to her hips and asked back, “What’s this about?”

The man looked forward, toward the house. “I just have to ask her a question.”

Alex looked back toward the house as well and saw Maggie had come out of the barn to see who was driving up. She stood near the tractor with her hand shielding her eyes from the late morning sun.

“There she is,” he told Alex. “Thank you for your time.”

He started driving off before Alex could stop him. She didn’t want to take off sprinting after him, but she checked her watch, then resumed her jog back toward the house. She arrived just as the officer met Maggie by the side of the house. They shook hands as Alex neared.

Maggie noticed Alex’s apprehension and gestured to the man. “This is Dave. We went to high school together.”

He had his hat in his hand and looked at Alex. “Sorry about being rude earlier. I’m not – not supposed to be here.”

Alex wasn’t sure where Dave was rude to her, but extended her hand to him as well. “Special Agent Alex Danvers.”

“Oh!” he seemed surprised. “You’re both… you’re both…” Then he looked fearfully at Alex and took a step back toward his car. “Maybe I shouldn’t…”

“Whoa,” Maggie called to him, hand outstretched. “She’s fine. You won’t get in trouble.” She looked around, then gestured to the barn. “Let’s find somewhere to talk. Between me and Alex, I promise we can find some way to help you.”

The reluctant deputy walked with Maggie back toward the barn with Alex following. Maggie stopped just inside the door and Alex moved to stand next to her.

Dave paced a bit in the open area near the bottom of the loft stairs. “I just… people talk, you know?” He looked at Maggie, gesturing with his hat. “About—about you.”

Maggie furrowed her brow and tightened her jaw. She was aware that people talked about her. She just didn’t like to be reminded. She nodded anyway. “Where’s this going?”

He put his hands up, hat waving. “I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean like – like that.” He looked down and started pacing again. Then he stopped. “I mean like you’re a weird detective, right?” Then she realized how that sounded. “Like you work cases that are weird, not that you’re weird.”

Maggie looked to Alex who was looking back, waiting for Maggie to take the lead. Maggie nodded. “Yeah. Do you have a weird case?”

“I think it’s weird,” Dave explained. “But the Sheriff told me to shut up about it. He said it was just some kind of meteorite or comet or something, but I swear I saw a light from where it went down.” He pointed toward the back of the barn indicating the direction. He licked his lips and looked around. “Then the crop circles happened.”

Alex shifted around. “Crop circles?”

The deputy nodded. “I know it sounds crazy.”

“We’ll look into it,” Maggie stated firmly.

Alex looked at Maggie, surprised that she was on board that quickly. But it only took a second for Alex to decide that if Maggie was going to look into it, she would help.

Dave stood still and straight. Then a smile broke out on his face. “Thank you so much.” He started walking out the barn doors. “I have the case file in the car.” He stopped and added. “It’s actually just some notes I took and a complaint about the crop circle, but I wasn’t sure you’d take it without it looking official.”

Maggie gave him a kind smile. “I’ll take what you got.”

The deputy went to his car to retrieve the file and handed it over. He quickly left after, citing a need to get back to work.

Maggie tapped the file on her palm and turned around. “Let’s go upstairs.”

“Maggie!” another voice called from outside the barn.

Maggie stopped two stairs up and Alex turned around at the bottom.

Caroline walked into view around the tractor with a paper bag in her hand. “Who was that?”

“A deputy,” Maggie gestured with the file in her hand. “He just wants a quick consult.”

Caroline walked into the barn, looking around at everything like it might jump out and bite her. “You shouldn’t be working.”

“I’m fine,” Maggie stated, not moving from the stairs.

“Well, I got you ladies some burgers from the pharmacy diner place down the road,” she offered the bag to Alex. “There are sodas in there, too.” She looked up at her niece and put her hands on her hips. She moved past Alex and walked up the stairs, then pulled Maggie into a hug. “Let it be known that I think working right now isn’t the best idea.”

“It’ll distract me for a while,” Maggie looked at her Aunt’s face. “I need a little bit of that right now.”

Caroline nodded understandingly. Then she stepped back down the stairs. “You also need a shower. You smell like the barn.”

Maggie chuckled and started back up the stairs.

There was no railing all the way up the stairs or at the top where the loft started. It made Alex nervous watching Maggie walk up so high with nothing to stop her from falling.

It looked like the portion of the loft just off the stairs had started to be converted into some kind of recreation room, but was given up on halfway through. There were a table and chairs, as well as a dart board on the wall and an older tube TV on a TV stand made of two cinder blocks and three two by fours.

Alex put the food in the middle of the table, and Maggie set the file on the table in front of her chair.

Alex watched Maggie sit down and noticed Maggie wipe her right cheek with her hand. Alex finally took in Maggie, face dusted with dirt from working outside. But on her cheeks remained faint evidence of tear tracks above and below where Maggie had tried to wipe away the evidence.

There wasn’t anything Alex could say that she hadn’t already said, and knowing Maggie how she did, words wouldn’t help. Pointing out that Alex knew she had been crying alone in the barn wouldn’t help. So instead, Alex decided to follow Maggie’s lead, sure that Maggie was right about needing a distraction.

Alex tipped over the bag with the food in it and pulled out a burger. She slid one to Maggie and placed one in front of herself. There were two cans of soda inside and two bottles of water that Alex set up in a line. She divided the drinks in two, giving Maggie a water and the soda she liked best.

“Aliens only make crop circles on TV,” Alex stated, unwrapping her burger. She looked at what was in it and saw that grilled onions spilled out from under the top bun. She scrunched up her nose and waited for Maggie to examine her burger as well before plucking the onions off of her burger and depositing them on Maggie’s.

Maggie smiled and placed the top bun back on her burger. “Thanks.” She wrapped half of the burger in the paper so she could hold it without touching it with her dirty hands. She held it in one hand and used one finger on her other hand to push open the file.

It was a sparse pile of handwritten notes and a single page incident report about the vandalism of a field. She looked over at Alex. “There’s not much.”

Alex turned the file toward herself. She breezed over the entire thing, taking in most of the information in a few seconds. “We’ve started with less.”

“And it’s probably just some kids with fireworks and too much time on their hands,” Maggie commented before taking a bite.

Alex read over the notes again and closed the file. She turned to her food. “Are you speaking from experience?”

Maggie smiled, but finished the food in her mouth before answering. “Maybe.”

The mischief in Maggie’s eyes made her swoon. She had missed the extra sparkle. It was a moment where she would have told Maggie she loved her. It was still true, but it was unkind to say out loud.

“Anyway,” Maggie could see the fondness Alex had for her and felt it growing in herself as well. It was dangerous and needed to be deflected. “We can take off after I finish the stalls and take a shower. It shouldn’t be more than an hour.”

“It won’t take long,” Alex tapped the file. “I bet we’ll be done by seven.”

“I’ll take that bet,” Maggie answered.

“Yeah?” Alex asked. “Uh, loser buys dinner and drinks?”

Maggie grinned and picked a fry out of the bag. “Deal.”


	10. Chapter 10

Maggie demolished her burger in record time, having been working hard physically all day. She stood and walked away from the table toward the edge of the loft with her bottle of water. Alex kept an eye on her, knowing that there was no railing and the fall would be devastating.

Maggie poured some of the water in the bottle onto her hand, then rubbed her hands together, rinsing away grease and dirt. Then she poured more into her hand and wiped off her face. She used the hem of her shirt to wipe her face off, doing her best to rid it of dirt and evidence of tears.

Alex watched Maggie the entire time. She was really just openly staring. It was a strange fantasy she never knew she had. She watched Maggie unbutton her plaid shirt and take it off, the sun coming into the barn with the early afternoon heat. She straightened out her muscle shirt underneath and used the plaid shirt to wipe away the dirt on her arms. It was… it was something.

Alex was so engrossed in Maggie pulling her work gloves back on that when her phone buzzed in her pocket, it startled her.

She fished the phone out of her pocket and checked the screen. It was just Kara sending a text to check in and ask about Maggie.

When Alex looked back at Maggie, she found Maggie looking back. Even though there was no evidence that Maggie had caught her staring, she felt guilty. She blinked rapidly and stood up out of panic.

Maggie let out a smile. She had seen Alex flustered before, and the Alex in front of her was definitely flustered. She adjusted the glove on her hand and pointed downstairs. “Did you see what was under the tarp down there?”

Alex shook her head. “What is it?”

“Go look,” Maggie offered one last genuine smile before heading toward the other end of the loft that was crammed full of junk and old furniture.

Alex left the remnants of their lunch on the table and went down the stairs. Whatever was downstairs clearly had Maggie excited, and whatever put a gleam in Maggie’s eyes at that moment in time was worth immediate attention.

She moved to the back of the barn. As she neared the tarp covered thing, the shape of it made her smile. She knew what it was without taking the tarp off. But when she did remove it, her jaw dropped. “Holy shit.”

“Right?” Maggie called from upstairs. “I guess my dad bought it a long time ago. It’s been sitting for a while. Like most of the crap in here. I found an exercise bike, an old revolver, an Intellivison… but that bike is definitely the best thing.”

Alex started to reach for the motorcycle in front of her, but she wasn’t sure she should. It was so pretty, even covered in dust. “It’s a ’62.” She raked her eyes over it and saw the key in the ignition. The large rectangular emblem had been dusted off, probably Maggie’s doing. Alex let herself lightly trace the letters that spelled ‘Triumph’.

“You okay down there, Danvers?” Maggie called.

Alex looked up and saw Maggie sitting on the edge of the loftAlex beamed and nodded. “It’s beautiful.”

“I want to get it running before we go back.” It was the end of her sentence, but the pause that happened afterwards felt weird. She spoke like they were going back to National City together-together and not just sitting in plane seats next to each other. Maybe.

Alex nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.” She looked up at Maggie. “How long do you think it will take?”

Maggie shrugged. She stood up and walked around the loft to the stairs. “I haven’t really looked at it yet.”

“I mean, it’s only going to take you a few minutes so,” Alex waited for Maggie to look at her before giving her a playful smile and a shrug. “No rush.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “Just because I fixed your bike once—”

“It was impressive,” Alex raised her hands as Maggie neared. Then she turned back to the bike and put her hands on her hips. “It’s really a beautiful bike.”

They stood around the bike in silence as the radio droned on in the background. The track faded out, and a familiar tune took over the barn.

Alex rolled her neck, the song washing over her. She knew what she had to do.

Maggie looked at the outstretched hand offered to her. She followed the lithe fingers up Alex’s arm, to the focus in her face. “Alex…”

Alex gave a sad, soft smile. “There’s no way we can make this any worse.” She gestured with curled fingers for Maggie to take her hand. “C’mon. The song’s only three minutes and fourteen seconds long.”

“I stink,” Maggie gestured to herself, but pulled her gloves off.

“So do I,” Alex answered with a gentle urgency. It was inevitable what they were about to do and the song was… if she believed in fate, it would have been fate.

Maggie very slowly took Alex’s hand. She gave herself into the pull and let Alex twirl her, before pulling her in.

“What are the chances this song gets played on my hometown’s second best pirate radio station?” Maggie asked, but it came out more like a sigh. She rested her free hand on the curve of Alex’s neck.

Alex held Maggie by the small of her back and her hand, swaying both of them to the soft beat of the music. “No idea.”

Maggie gave completely into the dance, resting her head on Alex’s shoulder. She felt Alex’s cheek on her forehead.

It was amazing what a song and the nearness of Maggie could do to her. Alex was transported back. They were edging on drunk, walking down the street from the alien bar to Maggie’s place. Someone was playing their piano with the window open and the melody got to them both. Alex took Maggie’s hand on the midnight corner under a street lamp and they swayed together on the sidewalk to the unseen pianist’s song.

Before it was over, Maggie used her phone to find out the name of the song and from then on it was their song. It was on all their playlists— and when it came on they were taken back to the beginning of a budding romance that would break them both.

Telling Alex that she missed her froze on the tip of Maggie’s tongue. She wanted so desperately to say it. She had never been good at expressing her feelings really well. Her parents made sure of that. But she wanted so badly to just have a moment of strength and say what she was feeling.

But the words never came. The song ended way too soon and the next song was definitely not one two people spent dancing close together to.

Maggie took a step back from Alex but caught her eyes. Alex was swimming in nostalgia, her brain a movie screen replaying all their happiest moments.

Alex could see the emotions wash across Maggie’s face. She could feel the love. She could see the longing. Then she saw a swift change. The hardening and the cold shadows. Tears started to accumulate in Maggie’s eyes, and her jaw shifted forward, trying to keep from quivering.

Before Alex could make a move to comfort her, Maggie had turned and started to pick up the tools that she had left on the tractor. “I’m going to get started on the bike.”

Alex sighed to herself. She wanted Maggie to open up to her but knew that Maggie being open would bring them closer and at the moment, closer was not the best idea. Closer was dangerous. It would only lead to more heartbreak at the end.

“I’m going to,” Alex paused, looking around the barn for something to do, but it was all Maggie’s work. It wasn’t something Alex was sure she should put herself in the middle of. “I’m going to go take a shower and call Winn. Maybe he has some data on falling space debris in this area.”

“Okay,” Maggie answered shortly. She knelt down next to the bike and started picking through tools.

Alex exited the barn and made her way back to the house.


	11. Chapter 11

“Uh,” Winn’s voice came over the speaker in Alex’s phone. “I’m not seeing anything noteworthy entering the atmosphere at that time, but… that was the night Kara punched an asteroid that was purposely hurled at earth by that mean purple man.”

“Yeah I know,” Alex leaned her head back and let the water from the showerhead fall into her hair, rinsing away the shampoo. “I just need to know what fell in central Nebraska that night. It was probably just something burning up on entry that the Deputy saw.

Winn spoke from the phone resting on the tank of the toilet. “I can narrow that down a little, but debris that falls in the Midwest is usually just abandoned there unless it’s larger than—”

“Larger than a meter across and heavier than a ton,” Alex answered. “I wrote those rules, Winn.”

He chuckled. “I just wanted to hear you say that. No one has recited the DEO rules to me since you’ve been gone.”

Alex smiled. She liked knowing that she was missed. “I’ll make up for it when I get back.”

“Okay so we have a few entries into that area of Nebraska, the closest one to you, via your subdermal tracker,” Winn answered. “It was discounted because it weighed less than a ton and entered the atmosphere with several smaller pieces of debris consistent with meteor disintegration in the atmosphere.”

“Send the coordinates to my phone,” Alex stated, turning off the water in the shower. “This may be good to distract Maggie for a bit, but I don’t want it to take too long. Funeral’s tomorrow.”

Winn grew quiet. He cleared his throat and inhaled. “Don’t—don’t expect her to be like movie funeral sad. It’s…it’s a weird space to be in. When a parent like that – dies… it’s confusing. Just…” Winn sighed, unable to articulate exactly what he wanted to say. “I know you’re there for her. Just… remember. This isn’t like if Eliza died.”

Alex nodded somberly though Winn couldn’t see it. “I’ll remember that. Thanks, Winn.”

There was some tapping on the keyboard and Winn added, “Sending coordinates your way.”

Once Alex was dried and dressed, she kept thinking about what Winn said. She was sure she wasn’t treating Maggie like her mom had been Eliza in any way. It was hard enough to support Maggie through the death of a parent, which was pretty standard. The death of a parent like Maggie’s parents was… new.

She sat on Maggie’s childhood bed with her head in her hands, staring hard at the planked wood floor. She resolved to just stay the course. She knew Maggie, and even though this was a new experience, Maggie was still Maggie.

She stood from the bed, grabbed her phone and walked out the door. At the very least she was going to check on Maggie.

When she stepped through the doorway of the bar, Maggie had one hand in the engine and one on some thing on the underside of the motorcycle. She moved a wrench a bit to the left and then pulled it out. She sat back on her haunches and dropped the wrench on the ground.

She stood up when she saw Alex walk into the barn. She wiped her brow and tossed something to Alex.

Alex caught it out of instinct. She looked down at the keys in her hand.

“Go for it, Danvers,” Maggie started picking up the tools on the ground.

“Oh no,” Alex shook her head. She walked toward the motorcycle. “You fixed it. And it’s yours.”

Maggie set all the tools on the nearest stall wall. “It was mostly fixed. Just a tune up. Some oil.” She leaned on the wall. “I need it to run for a bit before we go to the crime scene— and I need to take a shower.”

“Oh,” Alex could see that being a reasonable reason for her to ride it. “Are you sure you don’t want to at least start it first?”

Maggie shook her head, replacing a screwdriver into the old tool box near her feet. “Nah. It might catch on fire or something, and I like these jeans.”

Alex rolled her eyes and swung her leg over the dusted off leather seat. There was no way Maggie would let her on it if it was dangerous, so she put the key in the ignition and started it up. It roared to life, rumbling underneath her. “Oh,” Alex put her hands on the tank and lay down on top of the motorcycle. “She’s so pretty.”

Maggie crossed her arms and smiled. She reveled in Alex’s joy. Then she moved toward the door of the barn. “Take it up and down the driveway a few times. It won’t take me long.”

Alex nodded, placing her hands on the handlebars. Maggie looked so sad in the doorway of the barn that it killed the light the bike had given her. But Maggie smiled. It was real but it was also saturated in wistfulness. She nodded to Alex once more, then started for the house.

Alex pulled the bike out of the barn. It ran like a dream. So smooth and so powerful. She gunned it down the driveway and turned around at the road, riding it back. She always felt like riding a motorcycle was as close as she’d ever come to flying. Growing up with Kara was like growing up wondering what it was like to be extraordinary. Planes and motorcycles were as close as Alex would ever come to being her sister.

She took the bike out of the driveway and onto the road. She turned a few times, once accidentally into someone else’s long driveway. Then she made her way back to the Sawyer homestead where she found Maggie freshly showered, dried, dressed, and waiting for her on the trunk of her aunt’s car.

Alex cut the engine and put the kickstand down. Maggie was still looking at her phone, boots hooked on the edge of the bumper.

Alex waited for Maggie to look up at her and when she did, she was greeted with a distracted smile. “How’d it run?” Maggie slid to the ground as Alex dismounted the bike.

“Amazing,” Alex put her hands in her back pockets and looked at the bike. Then she looked to Maggie only to find her again staring at her phone. “Everything okay?”

“It’s just work stuff,” Maggie brushed off, putting her phone to sleep and tucking it into her jacket pocket. Maggie picked up the sparse case file from the trunk of the car and tucked it into the back of her pants under her jacket.

“Anything… extraterrestrial?” Alex asked, taking out her own phone to make sure she didn’t miss anything.

“I wish,” Maggie held her hand out, palm up to Alex. “Just paperwork stuff.”

Alex looked at Maggie’s hand for a moment before realizing that she had the keys to Maggie’s bike. She placed the keys into Maggie’s hand, ensuring minimal skin to skin contact. “She’s all warmed up for you.”

“I’m sure,” Maggie smirked and sauntered over to the bike. She looked it over once more, taking in the beauty before swinging a leg over.

Alex walked around Caroline’s car and got onto her borrowed motorcycle. She pulled it around the car next to Maggie. “Winn sent me coordinates of where some space debris fell on the night in question.” She saw Maggie switch into Detective Sawyer feeling her absorbing all the information she could offer. “It’s off Long Road on the other side of town.”

Maggie seemed to recall. “I know where that is.”

“I’ll follow you then,” Alex put on her helmet and watched Maggie start her bike. Maggie had to make a wide turn, exiting the driveway and going into the grass a few inches before getting back on the driveway. Alex put her hands on the handlebars and took off after her.


	12. Chapter 12

Maggie knocked on the door of the mobile home that was sitting at the edge of the debris field. So far, they hadn’t found anything remarkable, but the land around them was tall with corn.

Alex looked down at her badge, flashing through all of her fake credentials. “I need to redo my FBI picture.”

“Isn’t it just your DEO picture?” Maggie asked, stepping back so that Alex would be point when the door opened.

“Yeah,” Alex found her FBI badge credentials and dropped the prepped badge to her side, gesturing to her head with her free hand. “But I got a new haircut.”

Maggie folded her hands in front of herself and grinned. “Looks good, by the way.”

For a moment, Alex was speechless. It was always the result when Maggie complimented her. She was about to stutter out a reply when the door opened.

Alex cleared her throat and cobbled together a professional front. The open door framed a tall, willowy man with hair long overdue for a new buzz. He wore overalls that had seen thousands of sunrises on the farm.

“Hello, I’m Special Agent Danvers, FBI.” She showed her badge and then used it to gesture to Maggie. “This is Detective Sawyer. We have been asked to take a look into the vandalism of your field.”

“FBI?” he asked, squinting at her, a deep frown curling down chapped lips. “For some kids makin’ crop circles?”

“We were in the area,” Maggie offered. “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t agricultural espionage.”

“Agricultural what?” He seemed perplexed. He put his hands on his hips and looked in at his house. The interior was filled with light and a little messy, but the mess of a family. “I guess you could take a look.” He left the front door wide open, stepped between Alex and Maggie toward the stairs of his porch. “But I don’t know what you expect to find that the Sheriff’s Deputy didn’t.”

Around the back of the house, a mowed, fenced backyard with a swing set and above-ground pool was separated from the corn field by a wide dirt road.

He gestured toward the field, leading them toward it. “It’s still out there. Ain’t time to harvest yet, so there’s just a big ass hole back there.”

“Daddy!” A small head poked over the side of the pool.

Alex and Maggie looked toward the backyard to find three sets of inquisitive brown eyes peeking out at them over the side of the pool.

“I’ll be there in a minute!” he called back.

There were a few seconds of quiet before there was a loud splash and children’s laughter.

“It’s pretty deep in the middle of the field,” the man shrugged, gesturing to the field. “If you’ll excuse me, I promised some kiddos a water gun fight while their mom’s getting her hair done.”

“Of course,” Maggie nodded. “Thank you.”

He started to walk off and then turned back to the law enforcement duo. He zeroed in on Maggie. “Did you go to the high school up the road?”

“For two years, yeah,” Maggie nodded.

He looked her over once and didn’t show on his face if it was disapproving or just curious. He looked toward the house and then back at Maggie. “Do you have a card? I think Eliza wanted to take you out for a drink when she heard you were in town.”

Maggie’s eyes widened in an amount of shock and surprise Alex had never seen.

“Like, Eliza… Wilkie?” Alex asked when Maggie couldn’t get a noise out of her mouth.

“Well it’s Reiter now,” he nodded. “But yes, that was her maiden name.”

Alex took her badge out again and reached into the small pocket behind it to get her card. “Here’s my card. You can contact Detective Sawyer this way. Obviously this wasn’t a trip any of us thought we’d need business cards for.”

He nodded, looking at the card. “I understand.” He looked to Maggie again and offered his hand. “I know we’ve never met, but I’m sorry about your mama.”

Maggie shook his hand politely, but obviously wanted the talking to be over and the investigation to begin. “Thank you.” She cleared her throat and took her hand back, eyes wandering toward a new cluster of clouds moving toward them with the strong wind.

He hit his hand with the card, letting the slap stand on its own. “Let me know if y’all need anything else— and watch out for snakes.”

Maggie nodded, but it was Alex’s turn to be shocked. She eeked out, “Snakes?”

Alex’s fearful noise made Maggie smile. She took off toward the corn field in front of Alex, disappearing into the tall plants.


	13. Chapter 13

“So what do you think Eliza wants to talk to you about?” Alex asked, following Maggie closely between the tall corn stalks.

Maggie shrugged. “I dunno.” She regretted tucking the revolver she found in her mom’s barn into her boot. It was starting to rub her ankle. She reached down mid-step and tried to subtly adjust it without breaking stride. She managed to move it a bit, but it slid right back into its irritating place with the next step.

Alex was genuinely curious, fairly concerned, and the tiniest twinge of jealous about Eliza wanting to talk to Maggie. “I bet she wants to apologize.”

“It’s been years,” Maggie tried to see through the corn field. She had been lost in one before, and as fun as it sounded, it wasn’t. “Doesn’t matter anymore.”

“She might think it does,” Alex offered. She kept her eyes on the ground, watching for any kind of snake-like movement while trying to maintain some semblance of professionalism.

Maggie didn’t answer that. She was having a hard enough time fighting off the shame and the guilt and all the other feelings that lurked around every corner of her hometown. She didn’t need to see Eliza again and relive the catalyst for her exile.

She looked back at Alex and saw Alex wasn’t even looking around. Maggie stopped walking. Alex walked right into her, hands catching Maggie’s upper back and stomach before jumping away.

“Special Forces Danvers is scared of snakes?” Maggie shook her head with a faintest of smiles. “I can’t believe I never knew that.”

“It never came up,” Alex answered, eyes darting all around them. “In the city. Where we live. With no snakes.”

“They’re more afraid of you than you are of them,” Maggie turned fully toward Alex.

“Debatable,” Alex kept looking around them. She patted her hands on her jeans a few times. “Let’s just check out this crop circle and go get a drink or several.”

Maggie agreed and turned around, walking farther into the corn field. “I’ll protect you.” She glanced over her shoulder at Alex with a smile.

Alex smiled back, keeping pace with Maggie until her foot landed on something that wasn’t the soft earth they had been traversing. She jumped and hopped toward Maggie, putting two hands on Maggie’s shoulders.

Maggie saw the quick movement and put an arm out in front of Alex, swiftly putting herself between Alex and the perceived threat. Her eyes combed the ground before she saw what Alex had stepped on. She gave Alex a second to see it too before she turned her head to look at Alex.

Alex dropped her head, forehead landing on Maggie’s shoulder. “I thought it was a snake.” She put her hand on her chest feeling her heart pounding.

As much distance as she was trying to keep, Maggie didn’t try to stop her hand from resting on the side of Alex’s head. “We’ve all made that mistake at least once.” She tapped the irrigation pipe with her foot. “Of course most of us were ten.”

Alex picked her head up and shook out her fear. “Not all of us are sexy farmers though.” ‘Sexy’ just slipped out on its own, and Alex regretted it the second she realized. But she didn’t try to backtrack. That would make it seem like it was a slip instead of a purposeful tease. She wanted to at least feign some kind of control over herself around Maggie.

Maggie ducked her head, the word making her cheeks flush. She cleared her throat and started walking again. “We have to almost be there. This field isn’t that big.”

Maggie was right.  She broke through the tall stalks of corn into a clearing of broken stems and stalks less than three minutes later. Alex stood next to her, looking at the large expanse of flattened corn.

“It doesn’t look random,” Alex stated, breaking away from Maggie and hugging the edge of the flattened area as she walked. A few different corridors branched off of the bulky part of the crop circle.

Maggie put her right hand out, touching the edge of the stalks that were still standing tall and started walking along the outline of the crop circle that seemed to be more of a crop symbol. “It’s definitely not.” She looked down at the clear division between corn stalks that had been pressed flat and ones that were still standing. It was almost surgical.

Alex took out her phone and opened an app. The screen was white and as she walked, she ran her finger across the screen in the shape of her movement, creating a thick black outline. She walked in the opposite direction as Maggie, engrossed in her own idea.

Maggie saw what Alex was doing and knew the shape wasn’t random. She made her way to the far end of the design and saw a path in the corn. It was too large for a human and too narrow for a vehicle. She followed the path, knowing that it wasn’t part of the original design because it was reckless and messy. She followed it thirty feet away from the original breakage in the field until she saw a long ovular stamp in the ground. It was a shape immediately recognizable and she nodded to herself, moving more confidently away from the crop circle toward the edge of the woods.

Alex called out to her before she got too far away and jogged to catch up.  

“Where are you going?” Alex asked.

“There’s a trail that goes this way,” Maggie stated, pointing at the ground and continuing to follow it.

Alex showed Maggie the drawing on her phone as they walked. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but it looks sort of familiar. I sent it to Kara, J’onn, and Winn. Maybe they’ll find know something.” She held her phone up in the air. “Well, as soon as I get service.” She waved her phone in the air for a few more seconds before sighing. “I’m going to have to put it in satellite mode.”

Maggie was listening to Alex, but didn’t feel the need to answer her. Alex was just talking to herself, and as endearing as she usually found it, she was focused on finding where the trail led.

They were nearly half a mile away when Maggie saw something large and looming in the shadows of the woods.

Although it wasn’t nearly as exciting as what they were used to finding, it was exactly what Maggie figured it would be. “Hey,” she spoke gently and reached out her hand. The horse turned its head, getting a good view of her with one eye. She continued to inch forward, “It’s okay.”

The horse jerked back, but it’s reins were stuck in the branches of a fallen tree. She continued to move excruciatingly slowly toward the horse until she was close enough to yank the reins out of the tree branches. She stilled again, holding the reins and put her hand out toward the horse.

The horse snorted once and seemed to settle in front of her. “Good boy,” Maggie cooed and rubbed the horses muzzle, between its eyes and down its neck.

She carefully hooked the reins back over the horse’s head where they belonged. After checking the saddle for proper placement, she put one foot in a stirrup and easily swung her other leg around and over, mounting the horse with practiced ease.

“C’mon,” she held her hand out to Alex when the horse didn’t try to get her off.

“Hold on,” Alex put her hands on her hips. “I’m still getting over the fact that Maggie ‘will-not-live-anywhere-more-than-a-block-from-a-coffee-shop’ Sawyer just mounted a horse like John Wayne.”

Maggie quirked an eyebrow and curled her fingers up to get Alex moving. “We can finish living out this niche fantasy of yours after we figure out where this horse’s rider went.” She took her foot out of the stirrup nearest to Alex.

Alex took Maggie’s hand and slid her foot into the stirrup, sliding on behind Maggie. “It’s not a fantasy. It’s shock. You’re the most city person I know.” She thought that explanation did a decent job of covering up her slack-jawed, borderline-lust when she saw Maggie atop the horse, hair waving in the soft breeze.

However, because of the accusation, Alex was hesitant to put her arms around Maggie. But when the horse took off, she didn’t have a choice. It was hold Maggie or fall off. She wrapped her arms securely around her middle and watched the forest fly by over her shoulder.

Maggie slowed the horse when the trees thinned out and it was harder to see hoofprints in the mud. “Where did you come from, buddy?” she muttered, patting the horse’s neck.

Alex looked around. “We’ve been going straight away from that house right?” She didn’t see anything that looked familiar but the forest around them was starting to all blend together.

Maggie nodded. “Did you see any other horses at the houses on the way here?”

Alex shook her head. “No.” She thought about it. “Not that I remember.”

Maggie accepted what Alex said. She knew it was a difficult place to pick out details because a lot of it looked the same and blended together.

A few minutes into the ride, Alex became oddly relaxed. She leaned a bit more into Maggie and her arms were loose around her waist. “This may be a dumb question, but where did you learn to ride a horse?” Alex asked. “There are horse stalls in your mom’s barn, but I remember you telling me that you didn’t have any animals growing up.”

Maggie shrugged against Alex’s arms. “I had some friends here with horses. When I had friends here.”

Alex stiffened. She kept putting her foot in her mouth when it came to Maggie’s past. It wasn’t a great time in Maggie’s life and they were surrounded by it.

Maggie felt Alex’s shift and sighed. She didn’t mean for Alex to back down like that. “It’s not… I didn’t mean…” But she couldn’t come up with what she didn’t mean. Instead, a dense, painful silence stepped over them.

Alex battled her brain, trying to find something to say to Maggie when she felt the horse start to slow. Maggie could feel the horse’s hesitance to go in the direction they had been moving.

They both peered forward, seeing small clearing and a battered trailer house.

“Maggie,” Alex pointed toward the ground. “Look.”

Maggie glanced at where Alex had been pointing, seeing a tail of blood making a trail toward the house, through flattened grass, but her eyes bounced back up to the trailer. She saw a plump man moving quickly toward the side of his house.

Maggie started to get anxious and the horse felt it. It started to push backwards toward the forest.

The man was yelling and Alex reached for where her gun usually was, but grabbed air. They had been spotted and the movements ahead didn’t seem friendly. Instead, Alex grabbed her phone, turning on her camera with a few blind clicks.

The man unlocked the cellar doors and threw it open, yelling and pointing at them. Maggie didn’t wait to see what was coming out of the cellar, she knew it couldn’t be good. She turned the horse around.

Before they could start moving, Alex saw what emerged from a basement. A small, blonde girl with tangled hair and dirty cheeks. “Maggie,” she exclaimed. “It’s just a—”

But she realized to late that the little girl wasn’t just anything. Bare feet stepped into the earth twice before they left the ground completely and started speeding toward her.

Maggie’s back was turned, but she felt Alex’s body completely disappear from behind her. “Alex!” she yelled, yanking the horse’s reins to turn it around.

The little girl stood still, nearly a hundred feet away, feet buried in an indention in the ground with Alex’s shoulder tight in her hand. The man yelled in their direction. “Get rid of ‘em.”

The girl’s face grew hard, and she screamed at Maggie before turning, leaping thirty feet off of the ground, and hitting the ground again, slamming Alex’s leg into the ground. The girl leaped again, this time, she managed to stay in the air, flying away.

Maggie urged the horse forward, forcing it into a gallop. She got low on the horse, pushing up in the stirrups, taking any advantage she could to get closer to Alex. It was a race she and the horse were sure to lose, but she would be damned if they didn’t go out trying.

Her hair flowed in raven waves behind her, bouncing with each beat of the hooves on the ground. The wind rushed around her face and stole the breath from her lungs, but she didn’t stop. She had lost so much already. She would not lose Alex.

When she was sure she would lose them if she didn’t think of something soon, Maggie pulled the revolver out of her boot. She pulled back the hammer and fired into the ground.

The non-human girl stopped cold. She turned around, a struggling Alex under her arm. The girl stood on the stump of a fallen tree, putting her nearly as tall as Alex.

“Put her down,” Maggie stated, her best negotiator voice. She slowed the horse to a leisurely walk toward Alex and the girl. “We know people who can help you. We know other aliens.”

The girl shook her head, holding Maggie’s eyes.

Maggie nodded, using all the tricks she knew. She could see Alex’s feet finally find the ground, but she was no match for the pure strength of the alien. She put her gun back into her boot and raised her hands. “I can help you. Supergirl,” Maggie started. “Do you know Supergirl?”

The girl looked at Maggie like she didn’t know what she was talking about, but she was listening and that was what mattered. So she switched tactics. “What planet are you from?”

There was a momentary tremor in the little’s girl’s eyes and the pain in her face welled up, coursing until she screamed again. It was deafening. The horse reared, and Maggie struggled to stay on. She grabbed onto the saddle horn to keep from falling off, but the horse was too spooked.

She lost the saddle under her and knew she was heading for the ground. But as she was falling, her trajectory harshly changed. She was being carried away from the ground.

“Maggie,” Alex’s voice was strangled.

Maggie opened her eyes.  She was having trouble breathing. She grabbed at her chest, but a hand wrapped around her own. When she looked down to see whose it was, Alex was holding her hand, fear and sorrow in her face.

The world around them was fading as the inkiness of space started to swallow them. The girl had hold of both of them and was hauling them away from Earth.

The ground below was starting to fade into large swaths of yellow and green.

“Maggie,” Alex said again. She tugged at Maggie, pulling her closer.

“Alex,” Maggie wrapped her arms around Alex and held her close and hard, knowing that this was the end. They were going to suffocate in a few seconds. Maggie wanted more than anything to say ‘I love you’ to Alex one last time so that Alex knew for sure, but the air in her lungs wasn’t strong enough to force the words past her lips.

The darkness of space started to close in on her vision and the last thing she saw was Alex’s eyes slowly slipping closed and her head lolling forward.


	14. Chapter 14

Maggie was cold. It took her a moment to realize she was partially submerged. She pressed her hands into the smooth rocks at the bottom of the shallow water and pushed up, her clothes dripping as she got to her feet and looked around.

She had been lying in a stream. She immediately felt her pockets for her phone, then called, “Alex?” She turned around, scanning the area around her. “Alex!”

There was a wild splashing and Maggie spotted Alex, trying to get out and away from the water, thrashing and desperate. Her eyes were panicked, but her feet had a hard time pushing her away from the water.

Maggie ran to her side and slid on the rocks at the bottom of the stream, catching Alex’s shoulder. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. I got you. It’s okay.”

Alex scooted out of the water and pushed her hair away from her face, breathing heavily. She realized that she wasn’t about to drown. She was sitting in only a few inches of water, clutching Maggie like a lifeline.

“Alex,” Maggie smoothed Alex’s hair away from her face. “It’s okay. I’m here. I got you.”

Alex looked at Maggie’s face and held her eyes while she calmed herself. Then she blinked slowly and loosened her grip on Maggie’s jacket. She finally sat up on her own and patted Maggie’s shoulder as Maggie sat back, butt resting on her heels of her boots. “Are you okay?”

Maggie looked around and stood up again, getting a more comprehensive look around. “I mean, I guess, but we’re…” She shrugged. “I have no idea. Probably still on Earth, I guess.”

Alex put her hands on the ground and jumped to get her feet under her. When she stood, she put her hand over her brow, shielding her eyes. Alex couldn’t make out any sign of civilization, but she did notice some angry looking clouds on the horizon. She couldn’t see a road or a building, but they were in a valley. She agreed with Maggie that they were most likely back on Earth.

“Alright, Special Forces,” Maggie put her hands on her hips and turned to Alex. “What do we do?” She went back to where she had found herself in the stream and kicked some rocks around, sure she saw something. She swept her foot over it once more and then knelt down, plucking her phone out of the bottom of the stream.

Alex wanted to smile, but Maggie’s nickname wasn’t from a place of playfulness. She looked exhausted and exasperated. Alex swallowed her smile and gestured downstream. “This water has to go somewhere. Hopefully, it empties into a lake or something. People tend to congregate around lakes so… we’ll find a dry phone and call Kara and J’onn.” She rubbed her shoulder where her new subdermal tracker was. She hoped that someone realized they were missing soon, otherwise no one would be looking for her tracker in the first place.

Maggie started walking without waiting for any more explanation. Her boots easily dug into the pebbly earth next to the stream. Alex followed close behind, hoping Maggie’s desperation to get back to her hometown wouldn’t get in the way of being vigilant for wild things that could hurt them.

The clouds on her horizon grew darker and started pushing toward them. She remembered some similar stormy looking clouds when they were checking out the crop circle and hoped they were the same clouds. She knew they may be able to see the same clouds from a few miles away, but a few miles was better than across the planet.

Alex looked behind them at the stream, hoping that they wouldn’t get caught in a flash flood.

They marched in silence for nearly an hour as the woods around them grew more dense and harder to traverse. The sky above them had become completely blocked out. They didn’t have a lot of time before the sun went down. “Maggie,” Alex quietly broke the silence.

Maggie looked over her shoulder at Alex, waiting for what came next.

“I think it’s time we start thinking about shelter for the night,” Alex offered. “At the very least get a fire going. Someone could see it and come find us.”

Maggie looked at the sky and placed her hands on her hips. When her head dropped, Alex knew something was deeply wrong and had a fairly good guess what it was. She took a step toward Maggie, but as she did Maggie nodded, biting her bottom lip. “Okay, can we… go for another…” She looked at her watch that had miraculously survived intact. “Half an hour?”

“You have a watch?” Alex asked, stepping toward Maggie to see what time it was.

Maggie showed her the watch and then turned her wrist over. She undid the strap and pulled the watch off her wrist, handing it to Alex. “I’m sure you can use this to tell where we are by the stars or something.”

Alex accepted the watch and strapped it to her wrist. “Not quite, but it’ll help. We have about an hour and a half of daylight so we can walk for another half hour and be fine.” She looked the watch over. “When did you get this?” She spotted an engraving on the leather strap. “E.S.”

“Elaine Sawyer,” Maggie answered, starting to walk again.

Alex looked down at Maggie’s mom’s watch and started to take it off. “Oh, I didn’t know. You can have it back.”

“It’s more useful on you,” Maggie didn’t stop or slow down.

About ten minutes later, the forest started to part. Maggie felt a flash of hope seeing the shore of a body of water. Her steps quickened and she ran to the edge of the water only to see the other side materialize. It was small. Somewhere between a pond and a lake, but being able to see all sides of it irritated her.

The setting sun bounced off of the top of the water, creating a mirror that looked like she could walk on it.

Maggie kicked at the rocks on the edge of the water. “Damn it.”

Alex looked at the watch on her wrist then looked up at the sky. It was definitely about to open up. She looked around the pond and found a rock overhang that was high enough to keep them out of a flash flood if one materialized. She mentioned it to Maggie.

“What do I need to do?” Maggie asked, emotionless and distant.

Alex instructed her to gather dry sticks and the largest pieces of wood she could find, and meet her on the overhang. Alex watched Maggie walk off toward a dense part of the woods before she started gathering her own things to make them a shelter. She had a simple lean-to constructed by the time Maggie returned with a jacket full of bundled wood and a few small logs.

She dropped the bunch of it on the rock they were making their own. “There aren’t a whole lot of big pieces of wood.”

“That’s fine,” Alex looked at Maggie’s meager haul and knew they needed a lot more to keep the fire going all night. “We can go out again and get more.”

They gathered more wood and some kindling to get the fire started. Alex managed to peel some soft bark off of one of the sticks and used it to create what looked to Maggie like a tiny bow. Then Alex used a rock and another stick to pull off the miracle of fire that was mostly protected by their lean-to as the skies opened up.

They both dove under the shelter. They only found one leak that Alex fixed by rearranging some leaves.

Maggie had curled into herself on her side of the lean-to, looking straight out at the rain disrupting the surface of the water in front of them. The water had grown dark and violent.

Alex glanced over at her a few times before finally seeing a wet streak down Maggie’s cheek. Her first instinct was to look for leaks in the shelter, but when she saw there were none, she realized that Maggie was crying in the most heartbreaking way she’d ever seen.

Alex scooted toward Maggie and didn’t hesitate to pull Maggie into her arms. Maggie fell willingly and soon silent tears became open sobs. Alex pressed her hand to Maggie’s head, holding her firm against her chest. She didn’t say anything. She just held Maggie and kissed her head and stroked her hair. She let Maggie cry until she was all out of tears and was just lying on Alex’s chest.

“I’m going to miss the funeral,” Maggie finally spoke, voice struggling and raspy.

“You’re not.” The rain pulled the darkness down around them. “I’ll get you back in time. I promise.”

“I didn’t even want to go, but…” Maggie sighed.

Alex knew what Maggie meant. Maggie felt obligated to go to the funeral. Maybe a little bit of Maggie hoped for some kind of closure. Alex was afraid Maggie wasn’t going to find what she was looking for standing over a casket and it was going to haunt her.

Alex released Maggie enough that Maggie sat up on her own, feeling that Alex was done with the comforting. She wiped her face and scooted away, toward the fire.

“No, Maggie.” Alex took off her jacket and wadded it up, then laid it on the rock. When Maggie looked at her, Alex lay down, placing her head on the jacket. “C’mon,” she opened her arms. “For warmth.”

It was the first smile Maggie cracked since they woke up in the woods. “Warmth?”

Alex nodded with a grin. “I’m the expert here.” She beckoned Maggie toward her, arms still wide open.

Maggie started rolling toward Alex, then carefully crawled to Alex so she didn’t hit her head on the sticks and leaves that were protecting them. She put a hand on either side of Alex’s hips and felt an exhilaration shoot through her body. She was so close to Alex. She had missed being close to Alex.

When Maggie lowered her body on top of Alex’s and rested her head on Alex’s chest, Alex’s heart fluttered. She immediately put her hands on Maggie, one on her head and the other on her back.

They lay like that for a long while, Maggie still, her arms resting against Alex’s side and the rock beneath. She was quickly falling asleep with Alex’s long, slow strokes of her hair.

“This is dangerous,” Maggie spoke into the night air, looking into the dark over the crackling fire.

Alex nodded. She knew, but she’d already let herself go. She had given into it when she was sitting on her motorcycle outside Kara’s apartment, wondering if Maggie was going to be okay.

“I thought we were going to die,” Maggie mumbled against Alex’s shoulder.

Alex knew it. She felt it too. “I know. Me too.”

There was a long moment when the rain beat on the world around them while they were safe and warm. Finally, Maggie said what she’d thought in her last moments of consciousness before they were abandoned in the woods. “I love you.”

Some part of Alex knew the words were coming, but she could never fully prepare for their meteoric impact on her. Tears sprang to her eyes. Her reaction was completely out of her control. She did what she could to steady her voice as she stroked Maggie’s hair away from her face. “I love you too. Always.”

Maggie didn’t reply. She just held her hand out in front of her face. Alex threaded her fingers through Maggie’s and Maggie brought their joint knuckles to her lips, kissing Alex’s skin. Then she rested their hands on Alex’s chest.

“Go to sleep,” Alex dropped a kiss on the top of Maggie’s head. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Maggie decided that there wasn’t much to do about anything at the moment. Her safeguards against Alex had fallen. So, she fell asleep, feeling a tearing in her chest that absolutely adored being in Alex’s arms, and that was terrified because it was only for a short time.

It took Alex much longer to fall asleep. She thought what could be lurking in the darkness. But mostly she thought about the woman lying on her chest and what had brought them to this moment. She thought about what could have been and what could be.

Eventually, Alex too fell asleep, more content than one should be, abandoned in the woods in a storm.


	15. Chapter 15

Alex awoke without the warmth of the person who had fallen asleep on top of her. However, there was a jacket over her chest that hadn’t been there before. She took a deep breath, smelling Maggie all over the jacket and letting herself get lost for a moment before remembering where they were.

Her eyes popped open and she found Maggie, not far away, tending to the small fire. Alex watched her for a moment – hair up, poking the dying fire with a small stick, trying to get a larger stick to catch. Alex smiled. Maggie was a city person through and through. Alex never would have guessed Maggie grew up in the middle of nowhere.

Alex sat up but held Maggie’s jacket up to ensure it didn’t hit the ground. It was hard to tell what time it was. The sun was still hiding behind a thick ceiling of clouds. It couldn’t have been very late, though. She checked her watch and found it was only a little past seven.

Maggie finally got the large stick to catch fire and watched it for a moment before turning to check on Alex. When she saw Alex watching, she smiled, “Good morning.”

“’Morning,” Alex stretched her back. She folded up Maggie’s jacket and placed it neatly on top of the one she had been using for a pillow.

“I was thinking…” Maggie started, and for a moment Alex’s heart pounded in her chest. Her mind had been on their relationship since she lay down on the rock with Maggie’s head on her chest. She had dreamt they were back in Alex’s apartment, the picture of domesticity again. Maggie’s inflection was thoughtful, and she didn’t have that slight furrow in her brow she got when she was about to deliver bad news. Maybe she wanted to get back together. Maybe she had had the same dream.

Alex sat up straighter and raised her eyebrows.

“The alien that brought us here seemed young, right?” Maggie asked.

At that statement, Alex deflated. Of course Maggie wasn’t focused on their relationship. She was trying to get back in time for her mother’s funeral. Alex felt guilty as hell. She should be focused on the same thing. She nodded. “Yeah.”

Maggie turned back to the fire, continuing on, not seeing Alex’s disappointment. “So, I think she just crash landed on earth. Recently. And that man that was yelling… he found her.”

Alex knew what Maggie meant. A lot of people weren’t like Eliza Danvers or Clark’s earth parents. Some people would use the alien children they found for nefarious things. Some would keep them locked in a cellar. Alien children wouldn’t know any better. “How did she get here, though?” Alex asked.

Maggie stood up and put her hands on her hips, nodding toward the lake. “I’d say that is a good guess.”

Alex got up and joined Maggie near the edge. The top of the small body of water they camped next to was smooth and clear, glass straight to the bottom. In the middle of the lake was a murky mound in the middle. The softest of glows came from the mound, and the closer she looked, the more it looked like something until finally she saw it. “An escape pod.”

“We have to get the DEO out here,” Alex looked back at their shelter and then took in their surroundings once more to get their bearings. They needed to get moving.

“If you could get them to bring coffee, that’d be great too,” Maggie looked around as well, but didn’t get the same sense of direction that Alex did. She looked back at the escape pod, staring at it in hopes of getting some other indication of where it was from.

As she stared, she saw a tiny pulse of golden light. She ducked her head down and bent over a bit to get a better look into it without the morning light obscuring her view. She let her arm swing out and hit Alex to get her attention. “Hey, look.”

Alex turned back to the lake and edged closer to the water. “What is that?”

Maggie was the first to start climbing down the rock toward the part of the shore closest to the pod. Alex followed her and stopped a foot from the water’s edge. She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “We should see what’s inside.” She moved her feet around, shifting her weight. Her palms started sweating.

Maggie looked at Alex. “There could be something inside that could help us get back.” She finished her statement and watched Alex swallow hard. She could see how pale Alex had become.

Maggie put her hand on Alex’s arm to steady herself as she removed her boots.

“No, Maggie,” Alex weakly protested. She was frustrated. She wanted to be able to dive into the water and find out what she could about the pod, but the muscles in her back were already quivering at the thought of being submerged. “I can…”

Maggie shook her head. “You can’t handle being in the water any more than I can see you in it.” She peeled off her socks and stuffed them in her boots. She was already starting to get a chill and there was no telling how freezing the water in the middle was.

She took a step into the water and it felt like ice encapsulated her foot, crackling around it. She took a breath and forced herself to keep walking into the water, mud trying to pull her into the bottom with every step. However, as she moved, the water got warmer – abnormally so. It had to have something to do with the pod.

When she was waist deep, the feeling of the bottom of the lake distressed her too much to keep her feet in it. She dove into the water and swam to the middle of the small lake. She looked down when the pod was right under her.

She looked back at the shore to see Alex pacing at the edge of the water, looking like she wanted to jump in, but a force field was stopping her.

“I’m going under.” Maggie thought she should warn Alex.

Alex stopped pacing and looked at the water with her patented Alex worry. “Be careful.”

Maggie nodded, then took a deep breath and dove under.

As she swam closer to the teardrop shaped pod, the water grew even warmer. She waved her hand in the water toward the pod and sediment blew away from the pod in tiny tornados. The hatch was open and the lights were brighter with some of the silt pushed off.

She grabbed onto the open hatch and propelled herself downward, into the pod.

Maggie waved her hand over the control panel, clearing it of sediment, but she didn’t understand any of it. There were few markings, and the markings that were there were definitely not in a language she knew. She looked around for anything that was loose that she could pull out or something that would create a beacon for someone to see from far away.

She needed to breathe soon, but at first glance there wasn’t a whole lot she could see. There were some buttons she could press, but she knew better than to just randomly press buttons on a foreign ship.

After taking a mental picture of the pod’s dash, she kicked off of the single seat in the pod toward the surface. When she emerged, Maggie took a deep inhale and looked for Alex.

She could see Alex standing knee deep in the lake, absolute panic on her face. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Alex pushed her hair out of her face and shook her head. “I was… you were under for a long time or… it felt like a long time.” She bit her lip, sputtering for a way to change to subject. “Did you find anything?”

“It’s just a pod,” Maggie called back, treading water as best she could. “It’s still on, but I don’t know what language it is in.” She knew that if one of them would know what to do with a pod like that, it would be Alex. So she did her best to describe in very fine details everything she saw on the dashboard.

Alex listened to the description and stared at the water, taking in the information and nodded. She licked her lips. “It sounds like a pod from the Kryptonian system. Super high tech, not a lot of controls.” She looked at Maggie. “There could be a… an altitude controller—” She made a square with her thumbs and index fingers. “About this big.”

Maggie nodded, remembering something inside the pod like that.

“And the throttle is like a… it’s just light on the dash,” Alex shook her head. “Like a gesture control.” It was so hard to think with all the water around her. So hard to think when Maggie was neck deep in it. “But I wouldn’t risk it,” Alex shook her head, not wanting Maggie to try to fly the pod and get trapped or something equally terrible. She looked back toward the woods. “Just…get out of the water. There has to be a road close by.”

Maggie knew Alex didn’t want her messing with the pod. She looked toward the woods then back at Alex. “I’m going to go down one more time to look behind the seat in case there’s something we can use.”

Alex nodded, the blood careering through her body at the thought of Maggie going under again. Her fists clenched at her sides and her empty stomach rioted. She hated that she was terrified of the water and that if Maggie was under for a few seconds, her mind jumped to the worst.

Her entire body tensed when Maggie disappeared under the water again.

Maggie grabbed onto the hatch more confidently and pulled herself into it. She tried to get into the small space behind the seat, but it was difficult to get that far down. Maggie kicked her feet and found purchase on the dash of the pod.

However, instead of just pushing her further into the pod, it caused the ship to start moving. Instead of the nose up position it was in, the pod leveled itself out.

Maggie quickly turned around to look at the dash. It didn’t make sense immediately, but what Alex had said helped a bit. She saw the square panel Alex had described.

Alex didn’t want her to mess with it. and there was a part of her that was scared what could happen, but she was getting desperate. Her mom’s funeral was so soon, and she wanted to get back. She  _ needed _ to get back.

So Maggie let herself float out of the pod until she could just barely reach the panel and if the hatch closed she could push off fast enough to not get shut in. She reached down into the pod and touched the panel with her finger. At her touch the panel glowed slightly bright, but nothing else happened.

Then she pushed on it. Nothing. Finally she slid her finger across the panel and the pod started sinking deeper into the water. She held onto the hatch, sinking with the pod, losing her touch on the panel.

The pod hit the bottom of the lake with a cloud of murky silt shooting out from both sides. Maggie pulled herself into the pod as her lungs started screaming for air. She pulled into the pod again and moved her finger in the opposite direction she had before.

The pod rose toward the surface. Maggie held her arm stiff so that she stayed the same distance away from the hatch until her feet hit the surface and she started to collapse on top of the pod. She managed to situate herself inside of it just before it surfaced. The pod started to rise over the water, but she slid her finger across the panel as she did the first time, bringing the pod down to rest on the surface of the water.

Once it was steady and just barely touching the water, she stood up on the seat and looked for Alex. Alex was just standing there looking dumbfounded.

Maggie slid down into the seat with an audible splash and looked at the controls trying to figure out how to move forward and get to Alex. She shook her head knowing she had gotten lucky with the touch panel. She tried the touch panel again in a direction she hadn’t before, but nothing happened. She looked up over the side of the pod. “I can’t figure out…”

She stopped speaking when she saw Alex. Alex was in the water, swimming toward her. When she was close enough, Maggie reached over the side of the pod and helped her get out of the water. Alex got out of the water with a deep breath, straddling the side of the pod. She had tied Maggie’s boots together by the string and swung them over her shoulder. She took them off and handed them to Maggie with the comment, “It’s warm in here.”

Maggie took her boots and rubbed Alex’s leg. What Alex had done was incredible.

But before she could say anything, Alex kicked her leg inside the pod. “And full of water.”

Maggie pushed the wet strands of hair clinging to her face away from her eyes. “Sorry, all the dry ones were locked.”

Alex swung her other leg into the pod. Maggie scooted back in the seat as far as she could so Alex could sit in front of her. It was a tight squeeze, but neither one minded all that much. Alex nodded to herself looking over all the controls.

She tapped a few buttons, then placed her hands over two different panels. She moved one slightly and twisted her hand. The pod leaned to the side, water pouring out of it. Alex looked down and found there was still a significant amount of water in the pod, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.

She turned a knob and the pod hatch closed and sealed. “Okay, are you ready?”

Maggie nodded, pushing back into the seat, giving Alex enough room to fly.

Alex started the pod moving forward, but they only flew a few miles per hour. Maggie watched the ground under them move away at a pace slower than a brisk walk.

Maggie leaned to the side to address Alex. “Problems, Grandma Danvers?”

Alex smiled at the nickname. “I just can’t figure out the acceleration.” She racked her brain for what the symbols could mean. It looked close to Kryptonian which she sort of knew, but it wasn’t exactly the same.

She tried what looked most like the word ‘throttle’ on Kryptonian vessels she’d been on, but ended up opening the hatch again. She closed it back and moved her feet around in the warm water. “I’ve never flown a hot tub before.”

Maggie snorted, and it was enough to put her at ease. She could feel her anxiety from being in the small space with water melt away with Maggie’s laugh.

Alex got the pod moving faster through a bit of trial and error. The error nearly threw them both into the clear domed hatch, causing Maggie to grab onto Alex. She kept her hold where it was, arms wrapped around Alex’s waist.

“Hey,” Maggie pointed down at the ground. “There’s a road.”

Alex traced the road with her eyes, hoping that it ended in some kind of town. She didn’t want to land right in the middle of town, but a field close to it. However, she didn’t see a town at the end of the road. Instead, she followed the road, off to the side and as low as she could as to not draw attention to themselves. She was especially avoiding the attention of the small, scared alien girl who dropped them in the wilderness in the first place.

They followed the road at a moderate speed for nearly ten minutes before Alex started accelerating. She was getting impatient. She wanted to get to civilization. She wanted to get Maggie back in time for her mom’s funeral.

Maggie had grown weary in the seat behind Alex. She dropped her hold on Alex, feeling comfortable with the speed and plane of the pod, and less comfortable being so close to Alex. It wasn’t Alex, though. It was the fact that in a few days, less than a few days. A day. In a day, Alex would be out of her life again.

“We have to be getting close to something,” Alex stated after it had become uncomfortably quiet.

Maggie nodded, not knowing that to add to that. It was just awkward. And it was going to stay that way for a while.

Luckily, it didn’t stay that way for long. Alex spotted a few buildings coming into view and pointed them out.

“That’s…” Maggie looked to her right, scanning the horizon, then back to where Alex pointed. “That’s the house we were at. The one with the man and the girl.” She pointed out the window. “See? The crop circle is over there.”

“Do we want to put down there?” Alex asked starting to slow them a bit so they had a moment to pick a landing area. “I don’t think- oh my god!”

Like a missile coming at them from the ground, the alien child was flying up at them, fist first.

“Hold on!” Maggie grabbed onto Alex, wrapping her arms around Alex’s waist and holding on like it would save them both.

As the child flew toward them, a red and blue streak crossed the sky, grabbing the child just before she hit the fuselage. Instead, the child buzzed the wing of the pod, sending it careening in a spiral toward the ground. Maggie didn’t know what else to do, but hold onto Alex and squeeze the seat with her legs.

Alex desperately tried to right the plane, but it had been hard enough getting it moving in the first place. She pulled up, but wasn’t sure she could hold it before they hit the ground.

There was another thud on the back of the pod, sending them spinning into a mass of trees off the side of the main highway. They both slammed into the side of the hatch, Maggie managing to shield Alex from most of the blow by pushing off of the seat before impact and propelling her back into the hatch as they hit the first tree.

There was a sudden stop in the tops of the trees and Alex pushed up out of the floor of the pod. Water was dripping from the hatch and down her face when she saw her sister holding the pod still. She could see the concern on Kara’s face and nodded to her, letting her know she was okay. She quickly turned around and saw Maggie draped over the seat as Kara carried them back to the patchy dirt yard behind the beat up trailer the little girl had emerged from.

“Maggie?” Alex asked, picking up Maggie’s head.

Maggie’s eyes were bleary and there was blood trickling from the corner of her hairline above her right eye. She blinked a few times and started nodding when she saw how worried Alex was. “I’m fine. I’m okay.”

Alex looked into Maggie’s eyes. “You hit your head really hard.” She pushed Maggie’s hair back. “You have a concussion. I’m sorry.”

Maggie pushed up off of the seat. “I’m fine.”

They came to rest on the ground and Supergirl forced the hatch open. “Are you two okay?”

Maggie stood up and threw her leg over the side of the pod to get out of it. She slid farther than expected toward the ground and Supergirl caught her before she hit the ground. “Maggie, you’re not okay.”

“Who was that?” Supergirl asked.

“An alien that crash landed on Earth in this pod,” Alex answered, vaulting over the side of the pod and landing next to Maggie. She took Maggie’s face in her hands and examined the wound. “C’mon. You need to lie down.”

“I’m fine,” Maggie answered. She looked toward the trailer. “We need to find her.” She looked at Supergirl. “Where did she go?”

“J’onn has her,” Kara stated. She moved to Maggie’s side, but asked Alex. “Does she need to go to the hospital?”

“No,” Maggie waved her off. “I want to talk to her. Where’s that man?”

“Who?” Supergirl asked.

“The one that found the little girl,” Alex answered for Maggie who was having to fight her hardest to stand upright. “He made her attack us.” She put her arm around Maggie’s waist and held Maggie’s arm across her shoulder. “Look, Maggie I know you want to get him, but-”

“I want to talk to her,” Maggie pushed away from Alex, trying to walk on her own. “I want to talk to the girl.”

“She could destroy you,” Supergirl warned.

Maggie shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Where is she?”


	16. Chapter 16

Alex stood outside the window of the sheriff’s interrogation room. She didn’t like being outside, and she’d said as much.

“Maggie knows what she’s doing,” Supergirl touched her sister’s arm.

Alex crossed her arms and covered her mouth. “She’s concussed and grieving and not in a great place right now. I don’t think she does.”

J’onn stood still, watching Maggie through the glass. “Give her a moment.”

Maggie was sitting across from the little girl, who had curled into herself, taking up as little space as possible in the metal chair.

“Hey,” Maggie stood up and picked up her chair, moving it across the table. She still felt a bit dizzy, but not enough to stop her from doing her job. She sat down next to the alien, a non-threatening distance away. “Are you okay?”

The little girl just looked at her, other-worldly green eyes scared and gleaming.

“You’re really strong,” Maggie smiled gently. “And you can fly.” She paused. “Could you do that at home?”

The little girl seemed confused, then realized what Maggie asked. She shook her head.

“A lot of people can fly here,” Maggie leaned forward, forearms on her knees. “Did your pod crash? In the lake?”

The little girl pushed back in her seat, the metal groaning with her force.

Maggie nodded. “I bet that was scary. I crashed in your pod, too.” She pointed to the gash on her forehead. Alex had barely had a chance to close it with butterfly bandages before Maggie insisted on going into interrogation.

The little girl stared hard at Maggie’s gash. She looked down at the ground. “Sorry.”

“No,” Maggie quickly added. “It’s not your fault.” She left her chair completely and knelt in front of the girl. “He made you do that, didn’t he?” She looked up at the table and grabbed a picture of the man who had vacated his trailer and gone on the run. It was an old surveillance photo Winn dug up from the local hardware store. She showed the girl who immediately looked away. Maggie put the photo back on the table face down.

The little girl stared at her reflection in the one-way mirror. “He said if I didn’t, he’d send me back.”

“Back to where?” Maggie asked gently.

The little girl’s mouth twitched to the side. “It was dark. There was nothing.”

Maggie could see that the girl was sincere. She was quiet until the little girl met her eyes. “We’ll get you somewhere safe, okay? He won’t send you back there.”

“Promise?” she asked.

Maggie nodded. “Promise.” She waited a moment before asking, “Do you know where he is? We want to take him far away from here.”

The little girl shrugged and looked away again. “He left me in the basement a lot. It was dark.”

Maggie couldn’t imagine what that was like for the girl. She swallowed and licked her lips. “Thank you for your help. You’ve been very brave.” Maggie gave the girl a smile. “What’s your name?”

The little girl frowned. “I don’t… I don’t have a name.”

“You can pick any name you like,” Maggie held her hand out for the little girl.

The girl looked at Maggie’s hand, but kept her hands in her lap. “What’s your name?”

Maggie kept her hand out, a gesture of peace. “My name is Maggie.”

The girl nodded slowly and looked thoughtful. “My name is Maggie, too.”

Maggie chuckled. “It’s a good name.”

The little girl looked at Maggie and ignored her hand. She moved her hands forward, placing them on Maggie’s face.

“Kara,” Alex alerted her sister to the small alien touching Maggie’s head.

Kara stood at the ready but didn’t move.

Maggie felt a warmth spread through her head, starting at where the girl’s hands touched her face and spreading from there. It moved from her fingertips, up Maggie’s face and toward the gash. It stung for a moment, then the girl took her hands away.

Maggie reached up where the gash was and felt that between the bandages, her skin was smooth and unbroken. She smiled at the little girl seeing that she was nervous and seeking approval for what she’d done. “Thank you. That was amazing.”

The little girl finally broke out in a smile. “It’s good?”

“It’s good,” Maggie nodded. She sat down on the floor and looked up at the little girl. “I have some friends who can help you. Some of them are aliens like you.” She poked the girl’s knee. “One of my favorite aliens is from Krypton. Do you know Kyrpton?”

The girl nodded. “My mom had a store. She knew Kyrptonians. They were her friends.”

Maggie nodded and asked conversationally. “Do you know Kryptonian?”

The girl nodded, her face growing proud. “It wasn’t hard.”

“I bet,” Maggie encouraged her. “You’re very smart. You know English so well.”

“My mom knew a lot of languages and taught me how to learn them fast,” the girl offered. She looked over Maggie’s face then her face contorted a bit in pain. She suddenly spoke, “Your mom died.”

Maggie was caught off guard. She blinked quickly and recovered just as fast. “You read my mind?”

The girl shrugged. “Sort of. Just… feelings.”

“Yeah,” Maggie nodded, deciding to be truthful. “She just died. A few days ago.”

The little girl sighed heavily. “My mom died, too.”

“Your planet?” Maggie asked, not needing to ask. She had a solid theory.

The girl nodded. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“I have learned something,” Maggie told her. “I have learned that sometimes terrible things happen, but you can always find a family. They may not be your parents or your siblings, but there are always people that care about you. Even if you think…” She cleared her throat out of the view of the one-way mirror and found the girl’s eyes again. “Even if you think you’re alone, there is always someone that cares.” She put her hand on the girl’s shoulder.

After a few more minutes of discussion it was determined that the girl would be taken back to the DEO to be reintegrated into society with one of the DEO’s many foster families.

But they did have one problem left.

“Mitchell Emerson,” Alex told Maggie when she exited the interrogation room after the little girl was taken with a DEO agent Maggie approved of.

“We have teams sweeping the town,” J’onn added, looking at the three women standing with him. “It won’t be long until we find him.”

Maggie rubbed her eyes. “Where can I help?”

“You can help by resting,” J’onn put his hand on her shoulder.

“I  _ need _ to help,” Maggie held his eyes.

J’onn looked at Maggie and didn’t need to read her mind to know she was on a mission. “There are vehicles outside. There’s a team just north of here.”

“Thank you,” Maggie nodded to him and turned on her heel.

“Wait,” Alex turned and ran after her. When she caught up, she touched Maggie’s arm in hopes of stopping her or at least slowing her down. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” Maggie didn’t break stride. “I need to find him. That son of a bitch held her hostage for god knows how long.”

Alex evaluated her options at the moment, and the best option was to just let Maggie go. It was her idea to distract Maggie with a case that turned out to be way bigger than she could have imagined. She was going to let it distract Maggie because in less than eight hours they were putting Maggie’s mom in the ground. She trusted Maggie to do her job and stay within the bounds of the law, even in her emotionally tumultuous state.

“Be careful,” Alex told Maggie, stopping at the door of the sheriff’s office.

Maggie stopped as well, seeing that Alex wasn’t following her. She looked surprised, then a flash of disappointment before she became resolute again. She nodded firmly and walked out of the station.

Kara had been walking after them to help with the search and saw Maggie walk toward one of the search teams without Alex. “Why aren’t you going with her?”

Alex slowly turned to face her sister. “I-I-I’m not sure I’m helping her by being here. I think everything is just more confusing and chaotic and her mom’s funeral is in…” Alex looked at her watch – Maggie’s mom’s watch. “Eight hours.”

“Maggie knows what she’s doing,” Supergirl stepped up to her sister and put a hand on Alex’s arm. “And you’re both getting a terrible person off the streets and more importantly, saving a little girl.” She pulled Alex into her arms, hugging her sister. “We’ll get him way before the funeral. I promise.” She pulled back and held Alex’s shoulders. “It’s a small town, how far could he have gotten?”


	17. Chapter 17

Alex was starting to doubt Kara’s confidence when the minute hand on her borrowed watch ticked past forty-three minutes. She had taken up post at the Sheriff’s office. It had been deemed the hub for the search. Two DEO trucks were parked out front, the back hatches open as agents walked in and out to use the computers or swap weapons.

Alex had mostly stood outside between the open Sheriff’s office door and the DEO trucks.

“Agent Danvers?” a man asked.

She looked up at a junior level operative with a plastic bag in his hand. Inside the clear plastic she could see the revolver that Maggie had found in the barn. “Where did you get that?”

“It was in the field where you were… taken,” he swallowed. “It’s evidence? Does it go in the locker?”

“It’s not evidence,” Alex took it from his hand and wrapped the plastic tighter around the gun in the bag so she could fit it in the back of her pants. When she could see her distracted reply confused him, she nodded to him. “Thanks for recovering it. Good job.”

He smiled brightly and walked off.

Alex would have found it amusing if she wasn’t worried sick about getting Maggie to the funeral in time. She paced in a line, one arm crossed in front of her and the other massaging her temple as a migraine crept up on her.

A dusty old truck pulled into the dirt parking lot of the Sheriff’s office and parked off to the side. She didn’t pay them much mind and continued her pacing until a commotion came from that direction.

“You can’t park here,” a DEO agent was curtly telling an older woman standing at the open door of the truck. She was definitely a local with short cropped brown hair, worn denim, and large turquoise earrings.

“I always park here,” the woman stated.

Alex quickly walked over as the agent was trying to explain that the premises was a working federal investigation area. She interrupted him with a hand on his shoulder. She didn’t have the presence of mind for niceties so she pointed him away. “Go tell Comms I want a report from every active search team.”

The agent looked from the older local to Alex then followed orders.

“Sorry,” Alex told the woman. She spotted someone else near the bed of the truck, but they were bent over into the bed trying to get something out so all she saw was a flash of blue. She addressed the older woman. “Can I help you?”

“We’re here to help you, honey,” the woman grinned widely and patted Alex’s shoulder. She pointed to the back of the truck. “Every time there’s a big happening ‘round here we’re the refreshment team. I’m Dana.” She put her hands on her hips. “We usually set up where that truck is, but I guess…” The woman walked a few paces away and motioned her arm in front of her. “Here’s good.” She indicated an area in one of the parking spaces on the side of the office.

The person that was at the back of the truck stood up straight and walked around it. Long, blonde hair fell in perfect waves, one side pinned back out of her face. She carried a folding table toward the older woman, ballet flats kicking up dust. Her sundress swayed with each step. As she passed Alex, she smiled. “Thanks for letting us set up.”

Alex nodded. She took a step toward the truck and peered into the back of it. There were a few cases of water, some sports drinks, and a few boxes of protein bars. She furrowed her brow a bit. “How often do you do this?”

Dana and the younger woman set up the table in a few seconds and started back toward the truck.

“Oh,” Dana waved her off, “here and there. A few months ago there was a wildfire. Before that someone ran their truck into the Keeman Ranch and all the cows runned off. Took the whole town a few days to round them up again.”

Alex nodded with wide eyes. She wasn’t sure what she expected. She saw the blonde woman picking up a case of water and decided to make herself useful.

There was something dazzling about the blonde woman’s smile, sage and kind. “Thank you.”

“Agent Danvers,” the agent she sent away to check on everything came back with a small pad in his hand. He read from it. “Quadrants one, three, and four have been cleared. We’re still waiting for quadrant two to get back.”

Alex recalled the briefing they had earlier. All the search teams were to sweep the town for any signs of the man. There were five teams, four meant to stay in the bounds of their quadrant and Maggie’s team meant to follow the Detective’s instincts.

“What about the fifth team?” Alex asked.

The agent tapped a pen on his pad and turned around. “I’ll go ask.”

Alex sighed heavily. He was a great analyst, but a terrible field agent.

“Danvers?” the blonde woman asked. She looked curiously at Alex. “I think you were at my house earlier. You and Maggie came to check out the crop circle in my field.”

Alex nearly dropped the case of water she was carrying. She managed to get it onto the table. “Uh. Oh. Yeah.”

The blonde woman set her case down next to Alex’s and reached into the pocket of her sundress. She took out a card that looked very familiar to Alex because she had handed it to a man the day before.

“I’m Eliza,” the blonde woman offered. “I knew Maggie way back when.”

Alex’s eyes grew wide. She wasn’t sure what to say. The first thing that popped into her brain came out of her mouth. “That’s my mom’s name.”

Eliza smiled, “Your mom has a very pretty name.”

Alex gathered her wits about her. “Um, thanks.” She cleared her throat. “Do– well– did you –”

The radio on Alex’s belt interrupted her. Maggie’s voice rang out clear on several radios on the belts of agents walking around the office. “Suspect has been cornered in the woods behind the community center.”

“Community center?” Alex repeated to herself.

Dana stopped next to Alex and pointed town the street. “Oh, the community center is–”

A loud gunshot started far away and echoed toward them, then rushed behind them.

“Shots fired!” an unknown voice yelled through the radio. “Shots fired! Officer down!”

“Maggie,” Alex breathed. She hit the comm in her ear. “Supergirl!”

“I see them,” Kara answered. She had been able to triangulate the origin of the gunshot rather quickly, and with x-ray vision it was easy. She went into a dive.

Alex ran over to her motorcycle. “Winn get me the coordinates on the strike team that–”

“Already in your bike,” Winn told her.

Alex revved the engine and flew out of the parking lot.

+=+==+

Maggie pulled the wounded agent around the tree she had taken cover behind and gestured two other agents to her. She looked at them. “Get him out of here. He needs help.”

“Detective,” one of the agents started, but Maggie was already moving. She took the wounded agent’s gun out of the holster and peered around the tree.

The other agent dragged their wounded comrade away from where he was shot and back toward the community center.

Maggie checked the gun to make sure it was loaded and ready. Then she took a small, tentative step around the tree. She had a general idea of where her perp had run off to. She kept her eyes forward as she knelt down to scoop up the radio she had dropped to help the wounded agent.

She turned it down with her index finger and thumb as she moved it back to her belt. She couldn’t have it give her away. She was sure someone would be driving in fairly quickly anyway after the call of gunshots and the agents she sent away.

Maggie exhaled, then took another step forward. She could see disturbed leaves on the ground and knew the direction the kidnapper ran off to. She started walking forward at a more strenuous pace.

The wooded area was mostly flat with a few washed out ditches. Maggie entered a controlled slide into one of the ditches and then grabbed a tree root to pull herself out. Her right leg hit a slick muddy wall and slipped out from under her, but she caught herself, pulling out of the ditch with nothing more than a muddy knee.

Maggie continued through the woods until she stopped cold. There was something odd about the small clearing in front of her. There looked to be more leaves than in the rest of the woods in one place and the leaves were old and wilted, but made up the top layer. Like they had been moved there.

Maggie grabbed a nearby stick and poked at the leaves. The stick hit something hard and Maggie quickly brushed the leaves away from it with the stick. Jagged metal teeth started to emerge in a circle from the leaves and Maggie could see that a bear trap had been hidden and waiting for her to step in.

“You’re smarter than you look,” the kidnapper stepped into sight and pointed his shotgun right at her over the top of the bear trap.

“You’re not,” Maggie adjusted the handgun that was stupidly by her side. She knew he would shoot her the second she raised it. She’d seen the look in some people’s eyes when they were cornered. Some she knew would surrender, but this man wasn’t going back without a fight.

Maggie’s heart was pounding and her eyes bounced to movement behind the kidnapper. She could see several agents in all black moving through the woods toward them. Her momentary glance gave them away and the kidnapper’s head snapped to the side to see what she was looking at.

Maggie was sure that had given her enough time. She raised her gun, but before she could aim and fire, the kidnapper saw her movement and squeezed the trigger.

Everything moved in slow motion in that moment. The shot in the shell spread toward her, moving at a speed that was impossible to dodge, directly at center mass.

They were less than a foot away when Maggie’s favorite red and blue streak landed in front of her. As soon as Kara’s feet hit the ground, everything moved full speed again. Maggie’s right arm jerked backwards, struck by stray shot, but the rest of the projectiles bounced off of Kara.

Supergirl looked down and found herself standing square in the middle of a bear trap, the metal teeth dented and disfigured against her boot. She looked up at the kidnapper and fired her eye lasers at the gun, melting the barrel shut.

The agents that had been behind him moved in and Supergirl turned around to Maggie. “Are you okay?”

Maggie nodded, not looking at her shoulder, although it was starting to sting and radiate a white hot heat.

There was a whir of an engine making its way toward them. Supergirl and Maggie turned to see Alex riding toward them on a motorcycle, slamming on the brakes thirty feet away so that the back of the bike swerved forward and she hopped off, not even bothering trying to catch it.

“You’re okay,” Alex breathed running toward them. She started to move to Maggie to hug her when she saw the blood seeping from the sleeve of Maggie’s jacket. “You’re not okay.”

“It’s just a…” Maggie started, but winced when Alex lifted her arm to examine it. “Ka- Supergirl took most of the shot, but she is kind of like hiding behind a street lamp.”

“I’m sorry,” Supergirl touched Maggie’s uninjured arm. “I thought I got it all.” She moved to get closer to Maggie but the bear trap around her ankle rattled. The teeth broke open with an irritated yank.

Maggie shook her head. “It’s just a graze.”

Alex pulled Maggie’s jacket off, changing from doting, worried lover to serious field medic. She ripped Maggie’s sleeve off at the shoulder and used the torn up piece of cloth to cover the wound. “There’s still shot in there.” She touched Maggie’s back. “We need to get you to a hospital.”

“The nearest hospital is…” Maggie mentally calculated. “About forty-five minutes away.”

Alex huffed. “I can treat it. I just need to get you back to the command post. They have medical kits in there.”

Alex and Maggie got onto the motorcycle and Supergirl hovered over them, traveling at the same speed.

Alex pulled the motorcycle straight up to the mobile command center and hopped off. Maggie was starting to shake as shock settled in. Alex helped Maggie up the ramp. Maggie kept walking with Alex, but she spotted someone across the parking lot that made her sure she was hallucinating.

She sat in a chair, and Alex started digging through cabinets. Alex’s hands were shaking as well. She had been so sure that Maggie had been shot. And she knew the sound of a shotgun. If Kara hadn’t been there…

It was harder to breathe with that thought in her mind. Maggie was… milliseconds from being obliterated. Alex had seen what shotguns could do to people that close. She leaned on the nearest flat surface to gather herself. Maggie had almost been gone forever.

Maggie had been staring at her boots trying to ignore the pain in her arm. Had she really seena very grown up Eliza Wilkie? Or was she in such shock that she was hallucinating?

She saw Alex sort of fall toward a cabinet where she had been preparing medical supplies and stood up “Alex?”

Alex straightened up and put her hand out. “I’m fine.” She cleared her throat and turned to Maggie. She patted the counter she had just been leaning on for support. “Can you sit up here? It’ll be easier that way.”

Maggie nodded and used her good arm to vault herself onto the counter. Alex obviously wasn’t okay, but she had thrown up a very professional front so quickly that Maggie knew she wasn’t going to get much out of Alex until Alex was ready. It was a terrible trait they both shared.

“Do you want something for the pain?” Alex asked quietly, her throat tight.

Maggie licked her lips. “Uh, what time is it?”

Alex looked at Maggie’s mom’s  watch. “Uh… we have a little more than three hours.”

“Then no,” Maggie steeled herself. Both physically and emotionally.

Alex understood, but part of her wished Maggie had taken it. She was about to pull metal bits out of Maggie’s torn skin. It was not going to feel nice.

Alex attempted to distract Maggie from the pain instead. She offered, “So I met Eliza.”

“That was her outside?” Maggie asked.

Alex nodded. “She is apparently part of a volunteer emergency personnel support team.” She dropped a pellet onto the less than sterile, flattened plastic baggie on the counter. “They brought water and snacks.”

“Oh.” Maggie was neither surprised nor comforted by the information. She just had it. Eliza was standing outside with snacks. It felt surreal.

Alex gently cradled Maggie’s arm in her hand. She felt sick. She could see the scene in her head. A gun pointed right at Maggie and the shot flying toward her. If Supergirl hadn’t been there, or if she had been a second later…

“Alex?” Maggie asked.

Alex’s eyes focused, and she looked at Maggie’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Maggie asked.

Alex cleared her throat. It was not her turn to fall apart. The funeral was very soon and she needed to be strong for Maggie. Now that the hunt was over, there would only be the funeral. She could tell Maggie hadn’t even begun to process. “Just thinking.”

Maggie opened her mouth to prod a bit more, but someone walked tentatively up the ramp into the back of the command center.

Eliza was holding two bottles of water and a protein bar. There were other people moving around in the vehicle, but she had already found Maggie and zeroed in on her. When she got close enough her eyes dropped to the ground for a second before she met Maggie’s eyes again. “I heard you got shot.”

Maggie glanced at Alex for some cue, but Alex had become hyper-focused on cleaning up her arm. Maggie nodded. “Yeah. It happens.”

“Not too often, I hope,” Eliza stepped closer and offered the bottles of water to Maggie. Maggie nodded, then indicated the counter next to where she was sitting. Eliza set them down, then dropped the protein bar next to them. “How much longer will you be in town?”

Maggie shrugged with one shoulder. She could see how nervous Eliza was and it made her feelbolder. “No idea.”

“I’m sure you want to get out of here as soon as you can,” Eliza gripped her opposite elbow.

Maggie couldn’t argue with that.

Eliza continued when it was evident Maggie wasn’t going to reply. “I know Greg told you that I wanted to take you for a drink. I just want to talk to you.”

Maggie looked around and picked up a water bottle. “Now’s as good a time as any.” She realized she couldn’t open it with one hand, so she held the bottle closer to Alex. Alex put her tweezers down for a moment, then twisted off the cap while Maggie held the bottle. It was small and easy, something they’d done a million time before. Something that came naturally. It made Alex smile to herself, but Maggie seemed too preoccupied to enjoy it.

Eliza nodded. There weren’t a lot of people around. The ones that were in earshot wouldn’t care about two women rehashing something that happened in high school. Except maybe the woman bandaging Maggie’s arm. Her eyes flickered from Maggie to Alex and Maggie seemed to understand what she was asking. 

“It’s fine,” Maggie nodded, giving Eliza permission to say whatever she wanted to say in front of Alex.

Eliza took a deep breath.“I guess I’m sorry is the best way to start.”

There was a deep sorrow in Eliza’s eyes that Maggie didn’t expect. She didn’t know what to say so she kept quiet until Eliza continued.

“I got your letter and…” She smiled, drifting off into wistful memory. “I was over the moon. You put into words something I had been feeling for a while.”

The statement shocked Maggie. That was not how she thought everything went down. She thought Eliza had run to her parents with a damning letter to turn Maggie in to the town’s morality police.

Eliza continued, wanting to get everything out before Maggie reacted. “So I come home and my mom asks why I’m actin weird. I didn’t think I was acting weird, but,” Eliza waved off the thought with her hand. “Anyway, my mom thinks I’m on drugs or something and goes through my stuff.” Eliza sighed heavily. “She found the letter and read it and the rest is history I guess.” She swayed a bit as she stood.

Alex was subtly listening and keeping an eye on Maggie’s reaction while she sewed Maggie back together. Maggie hadn’t really reacted yet.

“I’m sorry that she found that letter, but I’m mostly sorry that I didn’t stick up for you,” tears gathered in Eliza’s eyes. “I just let everything happen because I was scared. And when you left town I…” She swallowed. “I ran so deep back into the closet. Every day I went through life pretending to be straight felt like a betrayal to you.” Eliza smiled through tears. “So the first thing I did when I got to college was get this huge bi flag and hung it in the window of my dorm.” She looked toward the opening of the command center they stood in like she was looking out her dorm room window. “I mean, I took it down when my parents visited for the first two years, but it was there.”

Maggie nodded in approval. The story changed the way she felt a lot about Eliza and what happened around her.

“Anyway,” Eliza shook out of the memory. “I wanted to tell you so that maybe that explains things a little better. Maybe it helps. Maybe it doesn’t.” She shrugged.

“Why did you come back?” Maggie asked after a second. “You always said you were never going to come back.”

Eliza chuckled. “Yeah.” Her smile was easy once again. “I came back for the holidays the year after I started my Master’s and I met Greg who was in town to build the windmills. Long story short, I left the Master’s program, he quit his job and we run agribusiness consulting from our house. I’m still working on my Master’s online. It’s just slow going, and it doesn’t matter as much to me as it used to.” She took a deep breath. “I think sometimes we have a picture in our head of what our life is supposed to be, but it’s not what’s going to make us the most happy.”

Maggie nodded slowly. As glad as she was to get some closure in the Eliza department, her mother’s funeral was a dark shadow looming in the not so far distance. “I’m glad you’re happy.”

“Thanks,” Eliza smiled. “Congratulations on everything, though.” Eliza gestured to the command center and outside. “This is all very impressive. I’ve been keeping up with your career in the papers. I’d leave some clippings with your mom when I saw her. She was impressed too. You really did what we said we’d do in high school. You left and made something of yourself.”

At the moment, the words didn’t make her feel as uplifted as Maggie thought they should. That had always been her thing. She would leave and become the metropolitan detective she’d always wanted to be, but there was so much hanging over her. All she could do was nod.

“Okay,” Alex finished wrapping Maggie’s wound and ran her hand over the bandage. “You’re all set.”

Maggie looked at her perfectly wrapped arm. She looked up at Alex and knew that they needed to leave. All of  her body’s energy was gone. She had poured everything into the events of the day, which had been the plan, but she wasn’t sure she had enough left to hold it together at the funeral.

She slid off the counter and landed lightly on her feet. She looked up at Eliza. “I have to go get ready, but it was good to see you.”

Eliza understood and took a step toward Maggie, gesturing that she wanted to give Maggie a hug. Maggie nodded. The hug was just as surreal as Eliza’s presence.

Alex took the moment of their goodbye to send out some orders over the radio. She wanted to make sure everything wrapped up nicely so they could focus on the funeral.

Eliza waved goodbye to Alex and exited the vehicle, leaving Alex and Maggie alone again.

They didn’t speak on the way to Alex’s motorcycle or on the way back to the farm. When Maggie opened the door, Caroline was standing in the living room, already dressed in a black skirt and button down shirt. She rushed to Maggie and threw her arms around her niece. “Where have you been?”

“The woods,” Maggie answered, hugging Caroline back with a desperation that Caroline hadn’t felt since Maggie was a sad teenager, recently abandoned at her doorstep.

The hug took the edge off of Caroline’s angry worry. She closed her eyes and held onto Maggie, worried about her for the first time since Maggie arrived. She swayed a bit in the hug and kissed Maggie’s head. Her voice evened out when she added, “I got you both some clothes for the funeral. They’re on your bed.”

Maggie sniffled and wiped at her cheek. She had exhausted every other emotion and a crushing sadness was all that was left. She nodded, pulling away from her aunt and silently walking up the stairs.

“I had to guess your size,” Caroline added to Alex and pulled her in for a hug.

“Whatever it is, it’ll be fine,” Alex gently squeezed Caroline. “Thank you.”

Caroline pulled back, but held onto Alex’s arms, looking at her face. She pushed Alex’s hair away from her eyes. There was a profound sadness in her face. Alex could feel it crawl into her body and weigh her down. She knew Caroline wanted to say something, but was holding it back. Alex wasn’t sure if she could handle hearing it anyway.

Alex just nodded and Caroline dropped her hold. Alex made her way up the stairs to Maggie and to the most challenging thing they’d faced all day.


	18. Chapter 18

Maggie showered first and by the time Alex was out of the shower, Maggie had dried her hair and was standing in her room, next to the bed in black pants and a bra, unbuttoning the shirt her aunt bought her. She moved like she was underwater.

Alex ran the towel over her hair again and tossed it onto the desk chair. She was running out of time. She needed to put on the clothes Caroline bought them, not of the t-shirt and underwear she put on out of the shower.

She started to step around Maggie to get her set of the clothes on the bed. She heard a small, sad sniffle next to her. She stopped and slid one hand across the skin of Maggie’s back. When Maggie looked at her, Alex’s heart shattered. Tears were streaming down Maggie’s face, and Alex didn’t hesitate to scoop her up, holding her tight.

“I’m not ready for this,” Maggie choked out after a few seconds.

Alex held Maggie and rocked her from side to side. Then she took a deep breath, her chest expanding against Maggie. “I will be there. The whole time. If you want to leave, we can leave. Whatever you want.”

Maggie just nodded against Alex’s shoulder, not trusting her voice.

Alex wanted to take all her pain away. She wanted to draw it from Maggie and hold it within herself. She would shoulder the anguish for Maggie all the time, for the rest of eternity if she could.

Her lips found a place to rest on Maggie’s forehead. Then she mumbled, “I’ve got you.”

Maggie pulled back to look at Alex. Although the kiss on her forehead was definitely not the most forward thing Alex had done this week, it felt like the most tender. There were soft tear tracks down her cheeks and her eyes sparkled with more waiting to fall.

It hurt Alex in a way she couldn’t explain. Strong, stoic, together Maggie was falling apart in front of her, and she had no idea how to help. And in that moment, their distance was gone. It was like they’d never broken up.

Alex leaned forward, pressing her lips to Maggie’s. It was just a moment, but it was warm and comforting. It was something they both needed.

She was completely aware the entire kiss. It wasn’t an impulse thing or a spur of the moment kiss. It was deliberate. It was everything she could give Maggie in one moment.

Maggie leaned into the kiss and let herself dissolve into it. She put her hand on the side of Alex’s face and touched the skin that always felt so right. She didn’t pull Alex in or push her away. She just used the touch to ground herself to the woman in front of her.

Alex pulled away when it felt appropriate. She wasn’t going to apologize or excuse the kiss. She wasn’t going to explain it away. She was just going to let it stand, a gesture on its own.

Maggie dropped her hand from Alex’s cheek and looked at Alex one last time before dropping her eyes to the floor. She nodded to herself and swallowed. Then she looked at the shirt on the bed. “We should go.” She picked up the shirt and shrugged it on.

Alex quickly got dressed as well and waited at the door for Maggie to get her boots on.

As she walked out the door, Maggie reached toward Alex’s hand. Her fingers ghosted over Alex’s palm before Alex solidified the touch, pushing her fingers between Maggie’s.


	19. Chapter 19

It was surprising, in a predictable way, that Kara was already at the cemetery. She offered Maggie a solemn hug, dressed in appropriate black clothing. Alex nodded to her sister and hugged her in greeting. Before Alex could step away from her sister, Maggie had already been pulled into a small group of mourners.

“How is she?” Kara asked quietly, standing next to her sister, an island of Danvers outside the main group. The others were gathering under the cheap blue tent that had been erected to shade mourners from the cloudless day.

Alex shook her head. “I don’t know. She’s… there’s been a lot going on, and I’m not sure she started processing everything until now.” Maggie’s posture was closed off. Her shoulders were rounded forward. She was holding her elbow, dutifully mingling like the daughter she had never wanted to be.

Kara put her arm around Alex’s waist. “How are you?”

“My mom didn’t just die,” Alex turned to Kara.

“I know,” Kara pushed her glasses up her nose with the back of her hand, “But this can’t be easy on you, either. What happens when we go back to National City?”

Alex took a deep inhale then held it for a moment. When she exhaled it was shaky. National City was so close now. “I don’t know. But for now… I’m going to be here for Maggie. We’ll figure it out later.”

Kara looked at her sister sympathetically. She knew Alex was the kind of person who would give of herself until there was nothing left. She was just worried about what happened when they went back to reality. Alex had been destroyed when she and Maggie broke up. Kara didn’t think it would be any better the second time.

Behind them, a short line of cars pulled up. The hearse came to a stop as close to them as possible while staying on the paved driveway, followed by a limo that Maggie couldn’t bring herself to ride in. Other cars stopped behind the limo. Caroline was the first one out, not waiting for the limo driver who was jogging to let her out.

Alex felt bad leaving Caroline in the limo with all of Elaine’s closest friends, but neither Caroline nor Alex wanted to subjugate Maggie to being trapped in a car with them so Alex had driven them in Caroline’s car.

Caroline touched Alex’s back as she passed, but didn’t stop. She was on a mission to rescue Maggie from whatever was going on under the tent. Caroline talked to the pastor and gestured to the front, then sat down in the front row.

The pastor moved to the front of the tent and people started sitting down. The older guests sat down first, then Maggie stood near the back until Alex and Kara joined her. They took a place near the back. Maggie maneuvered herself between the Danvers sisters, and they all sat together. Kara held Maggie’s right hand and Alex held her left, with her arm around the back of Maggie as well.

There wasn’t any emotion coming out of Maggie anymore. She just sat still, staring at whoever was talking at the front. First it was the pastor, then one of her mom’s friends. Then her aunt. Then a man who lived across town. Every time someone moved to sit down after speaking, at least three people would look to Maggie like it was her turn to say something.

But Maggie didn’t have anything to say. She didn’t know her mother. She hadn’t seen her in over ten years. Even if she did recount her memories, they weren’t particularly nice. Especially the later ones.

A woman Maggie vaguely recognized moved to the front and started to raise a hand toward her. She spoke to the crowd, “It’s time for-”

Caroline shot out of her seat and moved to the front, interrupting the woman and forcing a smile. “We all know how Elaine liked things short and sweet. I think this is about as long as she would have sat here. We probably shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

Maggie couldn’t feel anything as the casket was lowered into the ground with a piercing grinding of pulleys. Caroline dropped the first symbolic shovelful of dirt on top of the casket. It sounded like heavy rain on the wood.

Caroline turned to Maggie and handed off the shovel. She put her arm around Maggie’s waist. “It’ll help.”

Maggie swallowed and stepped away from her Danvers comfort corner and up to the large hole in the earth. She knew her mom was down there. Just a body in a wooden box about to be interred until the casket broke and the earth reclaimed her.

Maggie jammed the shovel into the mound of dirt next to the open ground and picked up a hearty pile of dirt. She tossed it into the hole, listening to the same sounds her aunt’s dirt made. Then she pushed more dirt into the hole with the shovel. She did it again. With each shovelful of dirt she grew more angry until she was furious. And finally her fury faded into tears. She staked the shovel in the remaining mound of dirt, leaving it straight up, a sundial in the midwestern evening.

Then she started walking. She walked away from the funeral, away from her mother, away from the mourners. She passed the Danvers sisters and muttered, “I’m done.” She wiped at her tears with dirty fists.

Alex and Kara were quick to follow her. Maggie got into the passenger’s seat of her Aunt’s car and stared straight ahead. Alex got into the driver’s seat, and Kara sat in the back. Alex didn’t even ask Maggie where she wanted to go. She just started the car and started driving.

They didn’t get far before a phone rang.

Kara apologized and answered it. “Yeah… okay. I’ll be right there.” She hung up. She really didn’t feel like she should interrupt the silence in the car, but she needed to. “Uh, Alex can you pull over someplace I can take off? There’s a cruise ship that’s starting to sink.”

“Yeah,” Alex pulled off of the main road, onto a dirt road, and stopped near a clump of trees.

Kara leaned between the front seats and touched Maggie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss. It… it gets… it’s easier sometimes.” Then she turned to her sister, kissed her head, and got out of the car. In the blink of an eye, Kara was gone.

Alex didn’t move the car. She was going to wait for Maggie to say something or at least move. Minutes ticked by until Maggie turned to Alex, red-eyed and exhausted. “Can I drive?”

Alex nodded. “Of course.” She got out of the running vehicle and walked around the back of the car, meeting Maggie near the trunk. Before she could pass Maggie, Maggie grabbed Alex’s waist. She held Alex around her shoulder and felt Alex’s arms encircle her.

“Thank you,” Maggie was quiet, but sincere.

Alex thought about her answer and there was really only one thing to say. “Always.”

There was a soft sigh from Maggie and she pulled away. She ducked her head and brushed past Alex to get into the car.

Alex slid into the passenger’s seat and put her seatbelt on. She didn’t know where they were going, but it didn’t matter. She’d ride around for as long as it took.

Maggie rolled down her window and Alex followed suit as they pulled back onto the main road. Maggie drove toward the sunset and well past it. She flipped on the headlights and turned down a side road that was much smaller. Then she turned down a different one.

In the dark, Alex was lost, but she supposed it didn’t matter much. She hadn’t been paying attention to where they were going anyway. She was just as deep in thought as Maggie was.

Maggie pulled to the side of a wide, dirt road a few minutes later. She turned off the car and got out. Alex got out as well. It was easy to see Maggie in the half-moonlight.

Maggie paced toward the front of the car, then whirled around on her heel. “I’m so mad, and I think I figured out why.” She didn’t wait for Alex to ask. “I always had this grand speech in my head that I was going to give if she ever tried to contact me. I would tell her how I didn’t need her and that Aunt Caroline was twice the mother she was and that I’m happy without her. I am living the life I always dreamed of.” Tears flooded Maggie’s eyes with an alarming speed. “But she never called.” Maggie’s voice cracked. “She never reached out.”

All the anger faded away, and Maggie was falling apart again. But this time it was complete. It was all the way to her core.

“And I’m not happy,” Maggie struggled to keep speaking through the overwhelming emotion. “I couldn’t even tell her off like I wanted because I’m not happy. I’m fucking miserable because I miss you every second of every day.” She paused so she could breathe. Her chest heaved as she stared at Alex in the blue celestial night.

Alex’s eyes stung with the tears she’d been fighting since she arrived in Nebraska. Maggie was in pain and Maggie was angry, but Maggie was also being so honest and raw.

Maggie closed her eyes and tilted her head down. Tears leaked out from under her lashes and fell down her face. She sniffled and wiped her face, her voice evening out. “That’s not fair. I’m sorry.”

“Maggie…” Alex trailed off. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know how to put into words that she had thrown herself into work because every second her brain wasn’t occupied, she was agonizing over losing the love of her life. She didn’t know how to say that she hadn’t been out on a single date since they broke up because no one was even remotely attractive to Alex the way Maggie was.

Alex wiped away her own tears and looked at the sky. The stars were all looking down at her, watching her fall apart. She wanted to say so much and it was all getting stuck in her throat.

“I have tried to talk myself into wanting kids,” Maggie confessed. She closed her eyes for a long moment. “And sometimes I can see it, but I’ve never wanted kids, and I know what it’s like being unwanted. I couldn’t stand it if I made a kid feel like even for a second.”

The statement hit Alex like a truck. She started to shake her head. She moved to Maggie and picked up one of her hands. “I hope you know you will never be unwanted again as long as I live, because I’ll never want anyone but you.”

Maggie choked on a sob and covered her mouth. A surge of sadness burned its way up her throat. She picked up Alex’s hand and turned her palm up. She placed the car keys in Alex’s hand. “Go.”

“What?” Alex asked, shocked.

“We’re just going to keep breaking each other’s hearts,” Maggie dropped all contact with Alex. “I can’t do that to you.” She swallowed. “I’ll… I’ll stay here for a few more days and see if that transfer my buddy offered me to the FBI is still open.”

Alex’s heart dropped. “That job is in Star City. It’s across the country.”

Maggie nodded, eyes on the ground. “We need distance.”

Alex felt like she’d been punched. Then her legs were taken out from under her. And her heart was ripped from her chest. There had always been a small bit of hope that one day she would run into Maggie at work. It was inevitable and Alex had been waiting for that day to happen, counting down to it like some kind of doomsday clock.

If Maggie was across the country, that small chance shrank to zero.

And it really felt like it was the end. Again.

Alex looked down at the keys in her hand. “How will you get back to the house?”

Maggie gestured behind her, then crossed her arms. “There’s a trail through those trees.”

Alex nodded. She was at a complete and total loss. She didn’t know what to say. She wanted to say something. Anything. But nothing was coming. When she couldn’t conjure up anything to say, she turned around and got into the car. She started it and drove away.

Maggie managed to hold herself together until the taillights were gone. Then she lost it. She had lost Alex all over again, and this time it was going to stick. She was going to make sure of it even though she only ever wanted to be with Alex.

She stood in the middle of the dirt road, bathed in moonlight and so utterly alone.


	20. Chapter 20

Maggie had stood still on the dirt road until her tears dried up and her emotion had overcome her so much that she couldn’t feel much anymore.

She turned to the trees and started walking. It wasn’t a terrible walk. It gave her some time to think. She pulled herself together so her aunt wouldn’t worry and forced up a steely exterior. She had to use her phone to illuminate some of the denser wood but managed the entire walk without much trouble.

When she got to the other side of the trail, she came face to face with the barn she had cleared out. She needed to finish it, but it would have to wait until tomorrow. She passed it, the radio she forgot to turn off still quietly playing music in the dark.

As she walked, she could barely keep her head up. She just watched the ground go by and listened to the crunch of the rocks under her feet. The rocks rubbing against each other were the only sound until another joined them. A particular ticking. It was the sound of a cooling engine.

Maggie looked up to see where the noise was coming from and found Alex sitting on the hood of her Aunt’s car. Alex was looking right at her, heartbreak all over her face.

Alex tossed the keys in her hand to Maggie and slid to the ground. “I’m not leaving.”

Maggie caught the keys without thinking. “What?” Maggie asked, thrown.“This past year has shown me that my life isn’t conducive to kids,” Alex shook her head, pushing off of the hood of the car. She started a slow progression toward Maggie. “It’s…” Alex shrugged. “My life is dangerous. And messy. And I love it that way. Someone figured out I’m Supergirl’s sister. What if they figured out about her niece or nephew.” Alex gestured to the field next to them. “I just disappeared for twenty-four hours into the woods and I wouldn’t have gotten back on my own.” Alex looked up at the sky, tears in her eyes. “It’s a choice I made a long time ago, and I like my life how it is.

“Except that I’ve been miserable without you.” Alex went on. “If I’m not at work, I’m miserable and even sometimes at work,” she offered a self-deprecating smile. “I think sometimes we plan out our lives before we really know what we want. I deserve to be happy. And you deserve to be happy. So why can’t we be happy together?”

“And you’d be okay with that?” Maggie asked cautiously. “With just me?”

And there was so much gravity in that question.

Alex didn’t answer. She swiftly moved for Maggie, taking Maggie’s face in her hands and kissing her. It wasn’t the comforting kisses from before. It was desperate. She needed Maggie to believe her. She needed Maggie to know she was more than enough.

Maggie’s hands rested on her face, then moved to her shoulder. She pushed gently. Alex broke away at the first hesitation. She fell back on her heels, terror that Maggie didn’t want to be with her striking her in the chest.

Maggie could see it flash across Alex’s face and was quick to add. “I want to be with you, but maybe…” Maggie could see the panic still on Alex’s face. She smiled gently and dropped a quick kiss on Alex’s lips to ease her anxiety. “I want you to be sure.” Alex started to open her mouth, but Maggie cut her off. “And I need to know you’re sure.”

Alex licked her lips. She understood what Maggie was saying. She didn’t want this to be a spur of the moment decision that Alex would regret later.

“So,” Maggie picked up Alex’s hands. “I want you to go back to National City.” She glanced toward the house. “I have some things to do here, and I’ll be back in a week. Let me know then.”

Alex could see that Maggie needed this. She nodded. “Okay.” She kissed Maggie again. “I’ll get my things and head to the airport.”

Maggie walked with her inside and watched Alex gather her things. Alex said goodbye to Caroline who had been in her pajamas on the couch when they walked in. Then Maggie walked Alex back to her borrowed motorcycle. She stood nearby as Alex mounted the machine.

“Text me when you get back in town,” Alex told Maggie, holding her helmet in her hand.

Maggie nodded. “I will.”

Alex gave Maggie a wide smile, smitten and nervous at the same time. Then she jammed her helmet on her head and drove off.


	21. Chapter 21

Maggie spent the next week hammering and painting. She put together beds and assembled playground equipment. She was on the phone a lot as well and received many deliveries. By the time the end of the week rolled around, she was nearly done with what she’d started.

It was her final act as a defiant daughter, and as she stood in front of it with her aunt, she never felt more proud of anything in her life.

“This is a great thing you’re doing,” Caroline told her.

Maggie looked toward the house and then at her aunt. “You’re the one running it.”

Caroline grinned. “Just take the compliment, kiddo.”

As they stood together, a large dark SUV pulled up the driveway toward them. They stood together, watching the SUV stop close by and waited for the doors to open.

A small, tentative foot hit the ground and cautious eyes peered around the door at them. When the alien girl she’d met the previous week saw Maggie, she relaxed a bit and edged toward her.

Maggie gestured the girl closer and knelt down to speak with her. They both turned to look at Maggie’s mother’s house, the house she’d been thrown out of. A house saturated in hate and ignorance. A house she had transformed into a welcoming, warm place.

“What do you think?” Maggie asked.

The girl kicked at the rocks in the driveway, looking at the swing set Maggie had installed near the barn. “Where are the other kids?”

“They’ll be here soon,” Maggie answered with a smile. “But I thought you’d like to pick out your bed first.”

The little girl looked toward the house, eyes wide. “I’ve never had my own bed before.”

Maggie felt a tightness in her chest and looked up at her aunt. There were tears in Caroline’s eyes.

Maggie touched the girl’s shoulder. “Well, you do now.”

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” Caroline asked.

The girl smiled brightly at Caroline, “Maggie.”

Caroline raised an eyebrow at Maggie, who shrugged. Then she looked at the little girl, amusement taking over her confusion. “That’s a beautiful name,” Caroline grinned. She offered her hand to Little Maggie and gestured to the house. “Let’s go pick out your bed. I bet you’ll want one by the window.”

Caroline and Little Maggie walked toward the house, but Maggie stayed in place.

She was joined by a figure that had gotten out of the dark SUV after the girl. “Does this place have a name?”

Maggie shook her head, then looked up at J’onn. “Just a place for kids without a place to go. Alien, gay, whatever… somewhere to belong.”

He smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’re going to help so many children.”

“I just donated the land,” Maggie shrugged. “My aunt is going to run it.” She crossed her arms and watched Little Maggie bound out of the house and sit on the swings.

“The rest of the orphaned extraterrestrial children DEO has custody of will be here in the morning,” J’onn answered.

Maggie nodded. “And the Earth kids from the LGBT youth shelter will be coming soon. There’s a lot of them.”

“We’ll figure it all out together,” J’onn gently squeezed her shoulder and dropped his hand.

They stood together, watching Little Maggie try out the new swing set, basking in the joy on her face as the wind rippled through her hair. Maggie knew she had done a good thing, turning a place of her own personal trauma into a place where kids could heal.

+=++ Chapter

Maggie had texted Alex over two hours ago, when she touched down in National City. The lack of reply was disheartening. She had made it back to her apartment and started her clothes to washing before her phone buzzed.

 _Come to my apartment_ was Alex’s text.

It was vague, but it wasn’t necessarily bad. It wasn’t necessarily good, either. But Maggie felt that she could handle it either way. The work she had done over the past week had made her feel stronger and more optimistic. No matter what happened with Alex, she had the shelter.

She told Alex she was on the way and fired up her motorcycle. She wished it was the Triumph she’d found in the barn, but it was being transported via truck and wouldn’t arrive for a few more days.

She stood outside the door for a solid minute, nervous about knocking. She had talked through both scenarios in her head. She told herself that if Alex wanted to continue their relationship, it made sense that she’d ask her over. But knowing Alex, if she was going to end it, she’d want to do that face to face as well. Neither conclusion helped her figure out Alex’s intentions.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a solid thump on other side of the door and what sounded like scratching. She knocked on the door and started counting. There was no answer for ten seconds. She knocked again and called out to Alex.

Maggie hadn’t brought her firearm with her, but she put her hand on the doorknob and turned it. It was uncharacteristically unlocked and Maggie got flashes of the security camera footage the night Alex was abducted.

She carefully stepped into the apartment that hadn’t changed since she last saw it. She looked around, not seeing a sign of Alex anywhere. “Alex?”

There was a scrambling noise coming from the bathroom and a small brown and black blur ran at her. It startled her at first, but when she focused she relaxed. A small German Shepard puppy bounded toward her, a long length of pink ribbon trailing behind it from its collar.

“C’mon Gertrude, she’s going to be here any…second…” Alex hopped out of the bathroom after the puppy, but when she saw Maggie, her words faded out and she froze.

Maggie looked down at the puppy sniffing her ankles and back at Alex.

“I was…” Alex held a spool of pink ribbon in her hand. “Trying to put a bow on her before you got here.”

Maggie knelt down and scooped up the puppy. “Gertrude?”

“That’s the name we agreed on right?” Alex asked, moving down the stairs into the living room. “I mean, I was waist deep in water so I’m not sure—”

“It’s perfect,” Maggie grinned, tickling the puppy’s furry belly. She set Gertrude down and watched her bound away to hop on a brand new dog bed with the price tag still on it and pick up a chew toy with no visible wear.

“I’m in this,” Alex took a step toward Maggie and picked up her hand. “You and me and Gertrude. I’ve been thinking about this since I left your mom’s house and…” Alex shrugged. “My heart wants you over everything.”

Maggie didn’t think she had it in her to cry again after two weeks of crying in Nebraska, but tears sprang into her eyes. “Really?”

Alex nodded and took both of Maggie’s hands. She kissed Maggie gently and quickly. “I love you. I want to move in with you and get married and go on vacation.”

“I love you too,” Maggie grinned, kissing Alex again. This kiss was deeper. It was a promise. They were going to make a life together and this time it was going to stick.

The sound of liquid hitting the hard floor broke their kiss. They both looked at Gertrude who was staring right at them and peeing on the floor.

“Gertrude!” Alex called and ran over to the dog to pick her up. The process of picking up the peeing pooch sent a stream of pee much farther than it would have gone otherwise. Alex hurried to the balcony door with the puppy and Maggie was quick to follow, careful not to step in the pee stream. She opened the balcony door for Alex who set Gertrude down on her fake grass training mat. Except that the puppy was done already and just sat down, looking up at Alex.

Alex sighed and shook her head, hand on hips. She looked over her shoulder at Maggie, “She already takes after you.”

Maggie chuckled and kissed Alex’s cheek. “I’ll get the towels.”

+=+= Epilogue to Come =+=+


	22. Epilogue

Alex wasn’t mad. She was just irritated. A tiny bit. “It’s been a month. I can’t believe you never told me.”

Maggie turned their rental car off the main road. “I didn’t want you to think it was because of the kid thing. Like I was trying to make up for it. Because I’m not.”

Alex nodded thoughtfully. It made sense. She reached across the seat and placed her hand on the back of Maggie’s neck, just wanting to touch her skin. “The kid thing is not a thing anymore.” Her words were one hundred percent truthful. They had skipped over that part of Alex’s plan, and she was okay with that. She was happy.

Gertrude poked her head between the two of them from the backseat.

“Do you feel better?” Alex asked, turning to their dog.

Maggie took one hand off of the wheel and scratched under Gertrude’s chin. “There’s a vet down the road we should see before we leave. Maybe they have something for air sickness.”

Alex grinned, loving how Maggie doted over their dog daughter.

Maggie stopped the car in front of her old house. There were children running around everywhere. Teenagers in the field next to the house kicked around a soccer ball. A few of the alien children were floating fifteen feet off of the ground, painting flowers on the side of the barn.

“Oh my god,” Alex breathed as she took in the entirety of the place Maggie built. “It’s amazing.”

When Lena had heard of Supergirl’s newest favorite charity, L-Corp had made a more than generous donation to the shelter. Everything on the outside looked the same, but the barn had been converted into a fully livable space to accommodate more children. Other shelters around the country were starting to sprout up.

It was actually a lunch meeting between Maggie and Lena that first tipped off Alex to the shelter’s existence.

A red and blue streak came toward the shelter and landed near them. Supergirl gave them a smile before there was a roar of children running toward Supergirl, all excited to see her.

A few of the children broke off from the group greeting Supergirl to run toward Gertrude. Being the good girl she was, Gertrude just sat at Alex’s feet, tail wagging so furiously it was kicking up dust behind her.

“Go ahead,” Alex told her, and Gertrude jumped up to meet the children, playing with them and rolling over to get her belly rubbed.

Caroline was making her way toward them with a huge smile on her face. She hugged Alex first because she was the closest, then hugged Maggie. “You’re here just in time for dinner.”

“Dinner?” Supergirl asked, perking up.

Supergirl led the march toward the house, followed by a river of teens. Gertrude started to wander off, but realized she was far away from her moms and circled back to walk next to Alex. Alex grabbed Maggie’s hand, and they smiled at each other.

Several long picnic tables had been constructed in the backyard, and the kids had moved them together into one long table in the first few days of the shelter’s operation so everyone could have dinner together outside, weather permitting.

Kids walked in and out of the house, grabbing plates, silverware, and drinks. Alex and Maggie were directed to sit next to each other near the middle of the table. by one of the older alien teens. She was also orchestrating most of the food placement and seemed to have the coordination that came with doing it often. Supergirl sat across from them, and Gertrude curled up at Maggie’s feet. The food was brought out, and soon everyone was sitting down for dinner.

“This is amazing,” Alex said to Caroline, gesturing to the table around them, at all the kids digging into the food. She was waiting for them to get what they needed, then was going to let Kara go at the food before getting her own. “I almost don’t recognize this place.”

She looked at Maggie next to her. She was smiling from ear to ear as she spoke to Little Maggie about school and learning to control her healing powers to help the other kids.

Caroline picked up a large bowl of broccoli and started scooping it onto Alex’s plate. “It’s probably by design.” She smiled, knowing that Maggie wasn’t listening to her.

Alex nodded. She knew that the house and the land around it hadn’t been a kind place to Maggie when she was the kids’ ages, but she’d changed that. From the lively bedrooms and kid-filled living room to the remodeled barn to the large garden out in the field, this was an entirely new place.

The older alien girl who had directed most of the dinner arrangement was sitting next to Supergirl. She leaned over and whispered in Supergirl’s ear, her stark white eyes gleaming. A huge grin took over Supergirl’s face and her eyes moved delightedly over to Alex. She made sure Maggie wasn’t looking and made the subtle motion of putting a ring on her left ring finger.

Alex quickly shooed the gesture away and put her hand over the small box that was in the pocket of her jacket. The girl grinned conspiratorially. Alex couldn’t help but smile as she mildly scolded both of them. “I’m going to start lining all my pockets with lead.”

Supergirl turned into Kara for a moment, quirking an eyebrow at Alex. It was a silent sister question that was perfectly understood.

Alex nodded. She couldn’t stop a smile from splitting her face. She was ready, and she was so sure. Over the past month, she and Maggie had talked through everything, from if they wanted to move in to Alex’s apartment or find a new place to where they planned to retire and what kind of things to grow in their retirement garden. It was a lot of talking, but it was a lot of laughing and a little crying. It was a life, and it was the life Alex knew she wanted.

Supergirl smiled at her sister’s joy. She had also done a lot of talking with Alex, still worried that she wasn’t thinking it through, but it took less than a week for Alex to convince her. Alex was in it, top to bottom, head to toe, head to heart.

Maggie caught Alex’s attention near the end of the meal when she switched their plates—without breaking conversation with an Earth boy across the table. Alex saw that Maggie’s plate had been cleaned save for the Brussels sprouts. Alex had actually spent half the meal poking around the steamed spinach. Maggie was already shoveling the spinach into her mouth as the boy continued recounting the latest episode of his favorite TV show.

Alex took Maggie’s hand under the table and used her fork to cut into a Brussels sprout. Maggie squeezed back, contented and connected.

When dinner was over, clean up was fast. A few of the alien children breezed over the table collecting dirty dishes, and Alex pretended like she didn’t see a few of them feeding scraps of the roast to Gertrude.

Maggie hadn’t moved from her place, which kept Alex where she was sitting as well. The tables cleared out around them as the kids all went their separate ways. Alex leaned into Maggie, resting her head against the side of Maggie’s. “That was so good.”

“Mhmm,” Maggie hummed. She turned her head and caught the corner of Alex’s lips in a quick kiss.

Alex breathed in Maggie, content in her moment with her girlfriend. She put her arm around Maggie’s shoulders. She blinked slowly, and when her eyes opened, she saw movement near the large tree in the yard where Maggie’s childhood swing still hung.

A tall, lanky girl with stringy blonde hair and a rainbow beaded bracelet was watching them. She seemed intent and curious, but there was a hint of a smile on her face. She froze when Alex saw her, but Alex just smiled and gave her a wink.

The girl blushed and smiled back, shrinking away and walking toward the barn.

Alex took a moment and stroked Maggie’s hair. Maybe if she had had a couple like herself and Maggie to look up to growing up everything would have come together a lot faster.

“You’re thinking very loudly,” Maggie murmured.

Alex grinned and kissed Maggie’s forehead before pulling away. She stood up and took Maggie’s hand. “C’mon, I want to see what’s changed since the last time I was here.”

Maggie stood as well, following Alex into the house. The house felt less like a secluded farmhouse and more like a lively home. A few kids were watching TV in the living room, and a few were doing homework at the kitchen table. Caroline had started the industrial dishwasher, installed after Maggie left, undoubtedly a donation from L-Corp.

Caroline saw them walk in and insisted on giving them a tour. Maggie’s old room was home to only two twin beds, one belonging to Little Maggie.

The barn had changed the most of all. The huge sliding wooden doors opened up into the living space with a pool table, foosball, many couches, and gaming consoles. The bottom floor was a teenage dream of lounging entertainment.

The stairs had been reinforced, and the loft had been enclosed and turned into living spaces. Every kid had somewhere to sleep that was their own. Maggie and Alex didn’t want to invade anyone’s space so they stayed on the first floor.

They were both pulled into conversations with the kids. Alex didn’t notice Maggie missing until she turned to where she’d been near the pool table and found her gone.

The white-eyed alien girl was walking past Alex and offered, “She went outside.”

“Thanks,” Alex answered. She started walking off when she heard a small noise from the white-eyed girl.

It seemed she was trying to speak to Alex, but seemed nervous. She gestured to Alex’s pocket. “Since I saw the thing… I was hoping I could help.”

Alex cocked her head and smiled. “What did you have in mind?”

Maggie was standing outside, looking at the early twilight when she felt arms around her waist. Her love of the celestial bodies paled in comparison to being in Alex’s arms.

“It is too much?” Alex asked gently.

Maggie shook her head. “It’s perfect. It’s everything it never was for me.”

Alex dipped her head down and kissed Maggie’s neck. The more she knew about where Maggie came from, the more she fell in love. Maggie was a strong person who found her own path.

“I love you,” Alex rested her chin on Maggie’s shoulder.

The sun was sinking on the horizon leaving only faint streaks of pink and orange in its wake. Alex heard walking behind them and smiled.

Maggie turned around and Alex let go of her, letting Maggie try to decide what was going on. A few of the kids were running out toward the field with sparklers and glow sticks in their hands. Little Maggie was among them, gleefully bounding across the ground until her feet left the ground completely. Supergirl took off as well, three sparklers in each hand.

At first it looked like they were just flying around, having fun in the sky, but a few seconds later, they started to coordinate, leaving light streaks in the sky in the shape of a heart.

Maggie found the entire show delightful and turned to Alex to see the look on her face, but she found Alex a few feet lower than she expected. Her eyes zipped from Alex’s face to her outstretched arm, to the ring between her fingers.

Everything that they had to say to each other had already been said. They were both in it. They were both committed. Alex just felt like the first time she proposed was spur of the moment and Maggie never got a proper ring or proposal. This time Alex was going to do it right.

“Maggie Sawyer,” Alex couldn’t stop smiling because she could already see the answer in the tears in Maggie’s eyes. “Will you marry me?”

Maggie pressed her right hand to her chest and offered her left hand to Alex. “Of course.”

Alex slid the ring on Maggie’s finger and stood up in one motion. Her hands moved to Maggie’s face and swept into a kiss as cheers erupted around them.

There was a buzzing over the field and when Alex pulled back, they both looked to see what it was. Electricity was arcing through the air from the fingers of the white-eyed alien in the vague shape of fireworks. The crackling energy was a cool blue and turned to a green, then red as it shot up into the sky and started to fall, dissipating before it got to the ground.

Supergirl landed next to her sister, and Caroline walked over to the pair. Supergirl swept up Maggie in her arms. “Welcome to the family.”

Caroline hugged Alex as well, swaying from side to side. “You have no idea how happy this makes me.”

“I might,” Alex chuckled.

Caroline joined her in a laugh and released Alex to Maggie.

Alex pulled Maggie into her arms again, kissing her under the impromptu light show.

Maggie was so happy. It was everything she dreamt of, looking out the window of her bedroom so many years ago.


End file.
